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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



HORSE-BREEDING 



BKING THE 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OE HEREDITY 



APPLIED TO 



The Business oe Breeding Horses, 



IXSTEUCTIOJS'S FOR THE ^IaNAGE^HKNT 



Stallions, Brood Mares and Young' Foals, 



SELECTION OF BREEDING STOCK. 



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J. H. SANDERS, 

rdiinrof 'Tlie Bleeder's Gazette," '-Breeders' Trotting Stuil Book," '•ri'r<lu 

Honorary member of the Chicago Eclectic Medical SoeieU>'flfti'r.> 

Illinois Veterinary Medical Association, ^rl^.^^Ci'^'' ^' 



CHICAGO: ~*^- ' ^^ 

J. H. SANDERS & CO. 

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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, 

BY J. H. SANDERS, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Preface 5 

CHAPTER I. 

General Principles of Breeding.— General Laws of Heredity- 
Causes of Variation from Original Typos — Modifications 
from Changed Conditions of Life— Accidental Variations or 
" Sports "— Extent of Hereditary Inflaence— The Formation 
of Breeds— In-Breeding and Crossing— Value of Pedigree- 
Relative Size of Sire and Dam— Influenee of First Impregna- 
tion—Effect of Imagination on Color of Progeny— Effect of 
Change of Climate on the Generative Organs— Controlling the 
Sex 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Breeds of Horses.— Thoroughbreds — Trotters and Roadsters — 
Orloffs or Russian Trotters— Cleveland Bays— Shire or Cart 
Horses— Clydesdales—Percherons-Otber Breeds (58 

CHAPTER III. 

Stallions, Brood Mares and Foals.— Selection of Breeding- 
Stock— General Management of the StaUion— Controlling the 
Stallion When in Use— When Mares Should be Tried— The 
Number of Mares to be Served— Effect of Age on the Fertility 
of the Stallion— Effect of Age on the Quality of the Get- 
Percentage of Foals to Mares Served — Management of the 
Stallion After the Season Closes — Effects of Castration on 
Stallions — Fighting Between Stallions — The Brood Mare- 
Causes of Barrenness in Brood Mares— The Productive Period 
in Brood Mares— Time of Foaling and Period of Gestation- 
General Suggestions as to Food and Nursing— Feeding the 
Young Foal— Weaning the Foal— Effect of Exercise on De- 
velopment—Breaking the Foal— Views of Dr. Reynolds,^ of 
Liverpool, on Horse-Breeding 131 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Diseases Peculiar to Breedikg-Stock.— Hygiene of the Eye— 
The Eye as Affected by the Teeth— Umbilical Hernia in Young 
Foals— "Scours" or Diarrhoea in Colts — Strangles or Dis- 
temper. The StaIiLION.- External Injuries— Inflammation 

of the Penis— Inflammation of the Testicles— Cancer of the 
Penis and Sheath— Prolapse or Paralysis of the Penis— Scrotal 
Hernia— Waterbag, So-Called — Excessive Venery— Non-emis- 
sion of Semen; "Proudness," So-Called— Sexual Sluggishness 
— Spermatorrhoea— Vesicular Eiaptions on the Penis — Foul 
Sheath— Masturbation— Cryptorchids (Ridglings, So-Called). 

The Brood Mare.— Barrenness— Nymphomania Tumors 

Within the Vagina and Uterus — Leucorrhoea, or So-Called 
Whites— Colt-Founder, So-Called— (Edema During Pregnancy 
— Superimpregnation — Heat During Pregnancy— Laceration 
of the Rectum- Abortion— Difficult Parturition— Laceration 
of the Perinseum 204 



PREFACE 



A very large proportion of the matter contained 
in this vohinie was prepared for publication several 
years ago when I had more leisure to study and write 
upon the topics herein considered, and when I was 
fre.^her from the field of practical experience than 
now. Much of it has since been printed in frag- 
ments at various times, some of it in the form of 
editorial articles for the monthly journal that was so 
long nnder my management, some in essays or 
addresses at meetings and conventions of breeders of 
live stock, and still other portions of it in the weekly 
stock-breeders' paper that for more than three years 
past has occupied my almost constant attention. A 
little more than four years ago I thought myself 
about ready to gather up the fragments that were 
already prepared and give them to the public in book 
form; but other and more pressing duties intervened, 
and it is only within a few months past, having been 
relieved from official duties that had for three years 
claimed all the time that I could possibly spare from 
the management of The Breeder's Gazette, that 
I have found leisure to look over and arrange the 



6 PEEFACE. 

matter which lias been gradually accumulating for 
so long a period. I give it now to the public, realiz- 
ing that, in common with all human effort, it must 
needs be far from perfect, but with a feeling of satis- 
faction in knowing that the work has at least been 
conscientiously done; and that such parts of it as are 
not derived from a knowledge bought with my own 
personal experiences have, for their foundation, the 
teachings of others who are regarded as eminent 
authorities in the specialties upon which I have 
quoted them. To the introductory chapters, wherein 
the general principles of breeding are discussed, I 
have given much thought; and I am confident they 
may be studied with profit, not only by horse- 
breeders, but by all who are disposed to investigate 
the laws which govern the transmission of hereditary 
qualities from parent to offspring, whether it be in 
the human species or in the lower orders of animal 
life. In the descriptions of breeds I have endeavored 
to be judicially candid and fair; to ''nothing exten- 
uate nor set down aught in malice;"' and where con- 
troverted points have been touched upon, Avhile I 
have endeavored to state my views plainly, and to 
sustain them by such arguments and facts as to my 
mind are conclusive, yet I have tried to do so in a 
manner that would not prove offensive to those 
whose opinions and conclusions may differ from my 
own. 

Aside from the introductory chapters on the gen- 
eral principles of breeding, which are applicable alike 



PKEFACE. 7 

to all breeds and all varieties of live stock, I have 
endeavored to make the work a practical guide to the 
management of the breeding stud — a book which 
any farmer or farmer's boy, or any novice in the 
business of horse-breeding, may read and study with 
profit. In the course of my long experience as 
editor of a live-stock paper, covering a period of 
about sixteen years, the constantly recurring ques- 
tions that have been seut in for answer have served 
to direct my attention especially to the points upon 
which information is most frequently sought, and 
these points I have endeavored to most fully answer 
in the pages which follow. 

While I have not intended that this book should 
in any sense be regarded as a veterinary work, yet I 
have thought T might add greatly to its practical use- 
fulness by incorporating witli it the material portions 
of several articles, prepared at my request, by Prof. 
James Law, of Cornell University, N. Y., and previ- 
ously published under my direction, wherein he treats 
of some of the diseases to which stallions, brood 
mares and young foals are especially subject. And I 
have also added a number of pages of matter of a 
similar nature, prepared especially for this work by 
N. H. Paaren, M. D., State Veterinarian of Illinois, 
whose high scientific attainments and many years of 
extensive practice have especially fitted him to give 
valuable counsel upon such topics. 

In the belief that the book will be found inter- 
esting to all students of the science and art of breed- 



PREFACE. 



ing, and especially helpful to those who have the 
care and management of breeding studs, whether on 
a large or small scale, it is given to the public with a 
full consciousness of the fact that it does not con- 
tain a tithe of Avhat might profitably be written or 
said u})()n the subject. 

J. H. SANDER8. 
Chicago. Feb. 1, 1885. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 

It is stated in Holy Writ that "God made man a little 
lower than the angels," and by common consent the horse 
is voted next highest in the scale of created beings. It 
wiU not be inappropriate then, in a treatise mainly devoted 
to the breeding of this, the noblest of the brute creation, to 
discuss some of the general principles which govern the 
transmission of hereditary qualities from parent to off- 
spring and Tv^hich are beyond a question substantially the 
same throughout animal life. Through the practical appli- 
cation of these laws to the business of breeding domestic 
animals, which for many years past has so largely occupied 
the attention of intelligent men in Europe and America, 
the great mass of our agricultural population have become 
familiar with their inexorable power and force ; and with a 
knowledge of the immutability of these laws has come a 
realization of the stern fact that the human species fur- 
nish no exception to their operation. 

The passage in the Decalogue, which declares that the 
iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the children unto 
the third and fourth generation, is clothed with a new and 
startling significance since it has come to be generally 
understood that this declaration is a concise statement of 
the operations of a physiological law, from which there is 



10 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BKEEDING. 

absolutely no escape. That the physical, as well as the 
mental and moral infirmities and peculiarities of the father 
and mother, are visited upon their children, even beyond the 
third and fourth generations, is as true when applied to the 
human family as it is of cattle, horses, sheep and swine. 

It is not my purpose to attempt to controvert the prin- 
ciple that "all men are born free and equal," which stands 
as the corner-stone of our political system. Undoubtedly 
this is true when applied to " rights before the law," but 
that all men are born physically, morally and intellectually 
equal will scarcely be claimed by the most ardent admirer 
of our democratic institutions. There is a solid foundation, 
in physiological fact, for the admiration with which the 
"first families of Virginia" have been regarded in some 
parts of our country, and the same may be said of many of 
our old famines in New England and other parts of the 
country. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes makes his " Autocrat 
of the Breakfast Table " give utterance to his belief in this 
great truth and his faith in the value of pedigree in the 
human family when he says : "I go always, other things 
being equal, for the man who inherits family traditions and 
the cumulative humanities of at least four or five genera- 
tions." To know that a man or woman is descended from 
an old family whose record has been honorable, beyond re- 
proach and without taint, is the very best possible evidence, 
next to his own individual record, that he is also worthy of 
confidence and respect ; and a taint in the blood of an op- 
posite character should certainly be regarded with as much 
distrust as a similar taint in the blood of any of our do- 
mestic animals, and for the same reasons. What is " bred 
in the bone" will be transmitted. Beauty of form and 
feature, strength and force of intellect, elegance and grace 
of motion, integrity and honesty of character, susceptibility 



GENEEAIi PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 11 

of culture and refinement or boorish stupidity, as well as 
all the virtues and vices, are as clearly transmissible and 
inheritable quahties in man as is the color of the hair or 
the shape of the body in horses or cattle. 

A subject of such vast importance, involving as it does so 
much for weal or woe to the human race, and which places 
in the hands of the intelligent stock-breeder such power 
over the animal kingdom, may well command the attention 
of thinking men, aside from its practical value as an aid to 
an intelligent reproduction of desirable forms and qualities 
in our domestic animals. It has been said of Bakewell, 
one of the first great improvers of live stock in Great 
Britain, that he regarded the animals upon his farm as wax 
in his hands, out of which in good time he could mould 
any form that he desired to create. In fact all our domestic 
animals have been, to a great degree, moulded and fash- 
ioned by the hand of man. The same uniformity that now 
characterizes the bison, the elk and the deer probably be- 
longed to the horse, the cow, the sheep and the hog, in a 
state of nature. The ponderous English Cart-horse, the 
fleet courser and the diminutive Shetland pony, are all sup- 
posed to have descended from originals that were as uni- 
form in their characteristics as are the members of a herd 
of bison upon our western prairies. The Short-horn, the 
Hereford, the Devon, the Jersey and all of the various 
breeds into which our cattle are now divided, are de- 
scended, it is beUeved, from the same original type. 

CAUSES OF VARIATION FROM OEIGINAIi TYPES. 

That the changed conditions of Ufe to which animals 
have been subjected by domestication — the variety of uses 
to which they have been put, the food upon which they have 
subsisted, the climate in which they have been reared, and 



12 A TKEATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

selection for especial uses — have produced the variations 
which are now so apparent, is generally admitted. Very 
much of this divergence is due to climatic influences, which 
alone are sufficiently powerful, in the changes of food and 
of habit which necessarily follow, to account for nearly all 
the varieties which have been produced. A warm climate 
and a bountiful supply of nutritious food from birth to 
maturity promotes groT^^h and development, while a scanty 
supply of nutrition and a rigorous climate have a positive 
tendency in the opposite direction. A knowledge of the effect 
of heat and cold upon growth and development has been 
taken advantage of by breeders for the purpose of producing 
dwarf specimens. The breeder of Bantam fowls is careful to 
have his chicks hatched late in the season, so that the early 
approach of cold weather may arrest development. The 
bleak, barren and tempestuous islands — lying in the high 
latitude of 59 and 60 deg.— north of Scotland, with their 
scanty subsistence and long winters, have dwarfed the horse 
of that country until he appears as the diminutive Shetland 
pony, while, from probably the same original, the rich herb- 
age, nutritious grains and mild climate 10 deg. further 
south, on the European coast, has given us the immense 
draft-horses of ancient Normandy and Flanders. 

But while climate and the necessarily accompanying in- 
fluences have done much to cause the divergence which 
now exists in races that were once uniform, selection by the 
hand of man has also been actively at work, in some cases 
co-operating with the influences of climate, thereby accele- 
rating the transformation, and in others counteracting its 
effect. We have an illustration of this in the horses of 
Canada. It is quite evident that the causes that have given 
us the tough, shaggy pony of Lower Canada, if continued 
without interruption for a succession of generations, and 



GENEKAIi PEINCIPLES OF BKEEDING. 13 

accelerated by the efforts of breeders in selecting animals 
for the purpose of reproduction, with the same object con- 
stantly in view, would in course of time give us a race as 
diminutive as the ponies of the Shetland Islands. But this 
climatic influence has been retarded and counteracted by 
Canadian breeders, who have rejected the smaller speci- 
mens for breeding purposes, and have constantly dra^vn 
upon the large draft breeds of Europe for fresh crosses. 
To such an extent has this infusion of fresh blood been 
carried for twenty-five years past, especially in Upper 
Canada or Ontario, that the influences of climate have been 
overpowered and the progression has been decidedly in 
the opposite direction. The efforts of Canadian breeders 
in this direction have been aided materially by the im- 
proved condition of agriculture in the Dominion, which 
has led to a more libej-al system of feeding and more 
thorough protection from the rigor of the cUmate. And 
thus the forces and influences of nature, in some cases aided 
and in others counteracted by the efforts of man, have con- 
stantly been at work breaking up the uniformity which 
originally characterized all our domestic animals, until 
divergence from the original type has become, in many 
instances, truly wonderful. 

The influences of selection, in creating divergence from 
a type singularly uniform, finds a most striking illustration 
in the case of the domestic pigeon, of which there are now 
nearly 300 known varieties, more or less distinct, and all 
probably descended from the common wild rock pigeon. 
Among these varieties the divergence is remarkable, not 
only in the color of the plumage, which in the orignal is 
uniform, but in the shape and markings of the various 
parts. Who would imagine, at first thought, that the pout- 
ers, the carriers, the runts, the barbs, the fantails, the 



14 A TKEATISE ON HOKSE-BKEEDlNG. 

owls, the tumblers, the frill-backs, the jacobins, the 
trumpeters, etc., and all their sub-varieties, with differ- 
ences so strongly marked, are descended from one common 
parent stock! Yet, that this is true, and that all the varie- 
ties from the original type have resulted from changed con- 
ditions of life, climatic influences and artificial selection 
and crossing, is generally admitted by naturalists. 

It is one of the jjrinciples of heredity, that when there 
is a great uniformity in a species divergences from the usual 
type in the offspring are slight and rare; but when this 
uniformity, from no matter what cause, has been broken 
up, divergences in the offspring are frequent and great, 
although there is always present a tendency, more or less 
powerful, to revert to the original type. This tendency is 
most frequently manifested when breeds or races, widely 
differing in their present forms, are crossed upon each 
other. In such cases, or violent crosses as they are called, 
it frequently happens that the progeny resembles neither 
parent, but shows strong marks of the type from which 
both of its ancestors originally sprung. Darwin gives 
numerous illustrations of this tendency to reversion in his 
experiments with pigeons of various breeds and colors, one 
of which I quote, as follows: 

I paired a mongrel female barb-fantail with a mongrel male 
barb-spot, neither of which mongrels had the least blue about 
them. Let it be remembered that blue barbs are excessively 
rare; that spots, as has been already stated, were perfectly char- 
acterized in the year 1G7G, and breed perfectly true; this likewise 
is the case with white f antails, so much so that I have never heard 
of white f antails throwing any other color. Nevertheless, the off- 
spring from the above two mongrels were of exactly the same blue 
tint as that of the wild rock pigeon, from the Shetland Islands, 
over the whole back and wings; the double black wing bars were 
equally conspicuous; the tail was exactly alike in all its characters, 
and the croup was pure white; the head, however, was tinted with 



GENEBAIi PKINCIPLES OF BEEEDING. 15 

a shade of red, evidently derived from the spot, and was of a 
paler blue than in the rock pigeon, as was the stomach. So that 
two black barbs, a red spot and a white f antail, as the four purely- 
bred grandparents, produced a bird of the same general blue 
color, together with every characteristic mark, as in the wild 
Columba livia, or rock pigeon.* 

This tendency to reversion in different breeds of domes- 
tic animals when crossed accounts for many of the disap- 
pointments which breeders experience in their efforts to 
improve their stock, and serves greatly to compHcate the 
breeding problem. 

MODIFICATIONS PRODUCED BY CHANGED CONDITIONS OF LIFE. 

It is quite certain, from what we know of the effect of 
climate and of changed habits upon animals in a state of 
domestication, that if two branches of the same tribe or 
species, essentially alike in every feature, should, by some 
chance, become separated and compelled to subsist under 
widely differing conditions of life, being left entirely to 
themselves and the operations of natural laws, in course of 
time a very marked difference would occur in their struct- 
ure or habit. There is a tendency in all animal life to 
adapt itself to the conditions under which it must exist; 
but a change may be so abrupt and complete as to over- 
come this tendency; and, under such a condition, the race 
would speedily become extinct, or gradually die out with a 
few generations of sickly and enfeebled descendants; but, 
under circumstances less abrupt and unfavorable, a few 
might survive, being those individuals that, from some 

* Those who have a desire to investigate this subject, as illustrated 
by the breeding of pigeons, will find a very full history of the various 
breeds, their processes of formation, and the effects of selection and 
crossing of breeds, in Darwin's "Variations of Animals and Plants 
under Domestication," Vol. I, pp. 163 to 272. 



16 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

peculiarity of organization, suffered least from the change. 
These animals, in their turn, would reproduce the peculiar- 
ities of their race, modified, to some extent, by the new 
conditions which environed them; and these again would 
produce animals still better adapted to the new order, until, 
in course of time, we should have a race widely differing 
from the original type, created or evolved by a survival of 
those best fitted to exist under the new order of things, and 
remoulded and refashioned by the changed conditions of 
life. 

If we accept the commonly-received doctrine of the 
origin of the human race — that is, that all mankind are 
descended from a common parentage — we are driven to the 
conclusion that all the differences which are so apparent in 
the human family at the present day are the result of the 
operation of the law of adaptation to changed conditions 
and of climatic influences, to which I have just referred. 
And yet there is as great a divergence from a uniform type 
in the human race as in any of the lower orders of animals 
that are recognized as belonging to a single species. 

An illustration of this law of adaptation may be found in 
the cattle of Texas. These animals, which we call " native 
Texans," are undoubtedly descended from the Spanish cat- 
tle, brought at a very early day to Louisiana and Mexico, 
but in form and habit they have been greatly changed from 
their Spanish ancestry. They roam over the plains of 
Texas, eat its grasses and drink its waters with impunity, 
and, under these conditions, increase and multiply at a 
prodigious rate, enjoying a remarkable degree of immunity 
from disease of any kind. But let the cattle of any other 
region be taken to that State and serious losses result from 
what is commonly known as Texas fever. It is not my in- 
tention, at this time, to go into an account of the nature or 



GENEKAIi PEINCIPLES OF BEEEDING. 17 

cause of this disease ; it is sufficient for my purpose to state 
the simple and well-known fact that all attempts at the in- 
troduction of a new race of cattle upon the plains of Texas 
have been attended with very serious losses. The proportion 
that have been found able to survive, under the conditions 
to which they are there subjected, has been found to be so 
small that few breeders or herdsmen will take the risk of 
bringing valuable cattle into the State. And yet a few do 
survive ; and their descendants are as frea from liability to 
the disease as are the native Texan s themselves. The Span- 
ish cattle, when first brought to thai: region, undoubtedly 
had to submit to the same fatal ordeal, and the thousands 
upon thousands of their descendants which today are found 
in that State afford us a striking illustration of the ability 
of a race to adapt itself to conditions which at first threat- 
ened it with extinction. The silent and invisible processes 
of nature so change the system and adapt it to the new 
order of things that what was a deadly poison to the an- 
cestor is comparatively harmless to the progeny. 

I might multiply illustrations of a like character, from 
the human race as well as from the lower orders of animals, 
but the principle is so well known and so universally recog- 
nized that it is useless to discuss it farther ; and I have 
only alluded to it here as tending to show how numerous 
and powerful are the agencies that are constantly at work 
producing variations and changes in animal life. 

In the practical business of breeding domestic animals it 
is important that due prominence be given to the operation 
of the laws to which I have alluded ; for it follows that a 
race or breed most perfectly adapted to a certain locality, a 
certain mode of life, conditions of climate, and character of 
subsistence, may, in time, when transported to a distant 
clime, or even when subjected to changed conditions of life 



1$ A TREATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

in the same locality, lose all its distinguishing character- 
istics and become practically worthless. On the other 
hand, a race of but little value in its native state may be so 
modified by a change in cHmatic conditions, or by the char- 
acter, quahty and quantity of the ahment furnished, as to 
become of the highest value to the breeder ; and these 
modifications, although frequently so slow as to be almost 
imperceptible in a single generation, are accelerated by the 
powers of inheritance under a continuation of the condi- 
tions which inaugurated them. A high or low temperature, 
and abundant or scanty nutrition, will, as before stated, 
affect physical development either favorably or unfavorably. 
Elevated plains, low marshes, and mountain ranges are each 
adapted to support a species of animal life in some respects 
distinct from the others ; and hence a knowledge of the 
effect of the various climatic conditions, and of the different 
kinds of food, becomes of the utmost importance to the 
breeder in determining the kinds of stock that he can 
produce with profit. 

There is perhaps no variety of animals that has been 
domesticated by man in which the effects of chmate and 
nutrition are more apparent than in horses. Temperate 
regions, grassy plains, and, consequently, abundant nutri- 
tion, produce increased size and strength; mountain ranges, 
with bleak, cold climate and scanty subsistence, dwarf the 
frame and produce the hardy, diminutive pony. The fertile 
plains of Germany and Flanders, with their salubrious 
chmate and abundant herbage, have been the home, from 
the very earliest period of history, of the ponderous draft- 
horses which still distinguish that region, and have been 
the source from which all the countries of the world have 
drawn the foundation for their draft breeds. The bleak 
and barren Shetland Islands, and the mountainous tract 



GlENEEAIi PEINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 19 

which lies between the plains of India and the crest of 
the great Himalaya range, are the homes of races of dimin- 
utive ponies, rough, shaggy and hardy. The highest in- 
habited land of Asia, which forms the source of the Gan- 
ges, the Indus and the Brahmapootra — a country as rugged 
and bleak as can well be conceived — contains immense 
numbers of small, sinewy and agile horses. The extreme 
regions bounded by the mountains of Siberia on the north, 
the Sea of Okhotsk on the east, and the Little Altaic Moun- 
tains on the west — the home of the Kalmucks — abounds in 
a tough and hardy race of ponies. 

I have not been able to find an exception to this law 
of nature in the history of the world. Wherever the horse 
has existed for centuries on rich, fertile plains, and in a 
temperate climate, we find him distinguished for size and 
strength; wherever he has been the inhabitant of inhospit- 
able, mountainous regions he becomes diminutive and 
hardy. Of course these results have obtained where the 
horse is left largely to take care of himself. Man may do 
much by supplying warm stables and abundant food, and 
by selection, to counteract the influence of climate, but in 
spite of his utmost care the tendency will constantly be as 
nature has pointed out. Mountainous regions and a rigor- 
ous climate will produce the toughest, hardiest horses — as 
we have seen in the New England Morgans and the Cana- 
dian ponies of our own country — while our rich and fertile 
prairies and luxuriant valleys are adapted by nature to be 
the home of the ponderous draft-horse. 

Prof. Low, in his great work, " The Domesticated Ani- 
mals of the British Islands," has a very interesting chapter 
on the effect of climatic influences upon animal life, from 
which I quote the following : 

The effect of heat is everywhere observed, as it modifies the 



20 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

secretions which give color to the skin, and the degree of cover- 
ing provided for the protection of the body, whether wool or hair. 
In the case of the human species the effects of temperature on 
the color of the skin, and, with this, on the color of the eyes and 
hair, are sufficiently known. AVe can not pass from the colder 
parts of Europe to the warmer without marking the progressive 
diversities of color, from the light complexion of the northern 
nations to the swarthy tinge of the Spaniards, Italians and 
Greeks; and when we have crossed the Mediterranean into Africa 
the dark color, which is proper to all the warmer regions of the 
globe, everywhere meets the eye. The Jews, naturally as fair as 
the other inhabitants of Syria, become gradually darker as they 
have been for a longer or shorter time acclimated in the warmer 
countries; and in the plains of the Ganges they are as dark as 
Hindoos. The Portuguese, who have been naturalized in the 
African colonies of their nation, have become entirely black. If 
we suppose, indeed, the great races of mankind to have been called 
into existence in different regions we must suppose that they 
were born with the color, as well as the other attributes, suited to 
the climates of the countries which they were to inhabit. It 
accords with this supposition that the Negro remains always 
black, even in the highest latitudes to which he has been carried; 
and that the black races of the Eastern Islands retain the color 
proper to them in the mild temperature of Van Diemen's Land. 
The Mongolian, even in the coldest regions of Northern Asia, 
retains the hue distinctive of his family, but with a continually 
deepening shade as he approaches to the intertropical countries. 
The native of China, of a dull yellow tint at Pekin, is at Canton 
nearly as dark as a Lascar. The American Indian retains his dis- 
tinctive copper hue amid the snows of Labrador, but on the 
shores of the Caribbean Sea becomes nearly as black as an 
African. 

Temperature likewise affects the size and form of the body. 
The members of the Caucasian group towards the Arctic Circle 
are of far inferior bulk of body to the natives of temperate coun- 
tries. The Central Asiatics, in elevated plains, are sturdy and 
short, the result of an expansion of the chest; the Hindoos are of 
slender form and low physical powers, so that they have almost 
always yielded to the superior force of the northern nations from 
the first invasion of the Macedonians to the ultimate establish- 



GENEBAL PEINCIPLES OF BKEEDING. 21 

ment of European power in the Peninsula. The Negro, on the 
other hand, in the hottest and most pestilential regions of the 
habitable earth, where the Caucasian either perishes or becomes 
as slender as a stripling, is of a strength and stature which would 
be deemed great in any class of men-affording a strong pre- 
sumption in favor of the opinion of the distinctness of his race 
and its special adaptation to the region in which it has been 

placed. , 

In quadrupeds the effects of temperature are everywhere 
observable in the covering provided for their body, whether wool 
or hair, and which in the same species is always more abundant 
in the colder than in the warmer countries. In all quadrupeds 
there is a growth of down or wool underneath the hair, and more 
or less mixed with it. In warm countries this wool is little if at 
all developed; but in the colder it frequently becomes the prin- 
cipal covering of the skin, forming along with the hair a thick 
fur. In the warmest regions the domestic sheep produces 
scarcely any wool; in temperate countries he has a fleece properly 
so called, and in the coldest of all his wool is mixed with long 
hair which covers it externally. The wool, an imperfect con- 
ductor of heat, preserves the natural temperature of the body, 
and thus protects the animal from cold, while the long hair is 
fitted to throw off the water which falls upon the body in rain or 
snow. But in the warm season the wool, which would be incom- 
modious, falls off, to be renewed before winter, while the hair 
always remains. The dog, too, has a coat of wool which he loses 
in countries of great heat, but which in colder countries grows so 
as to form along with the hair a thick fur, so that in certain cold 
countries there have been formed breeds of dogs to produce wool 
for clothing. The dogs of Europe conveyed to warm countries 
frequently lose even their hair and become as naked as elephants, 
and in every country their fur is suited to the nature of the 
climate. 

Similar to the effects of temperature is that of humidity, the 
hair becoming longer and more oily in the moister countries. 
Even within the limits of our own islands, the ox of the western 
coasts, exposed to the humid vapors of the Atlantic, has longer 
hair than the ox of the eastern districts. Even the effect of con- 
tinued exposure to winds and storms may modify parts of the 
animal form. There are certain breeds of gallinaceous fowls 



22 A TKEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

which are destitute of the rump, so-called. Most of the common 
fowls of the Isle of Arran, on the coast of Scotland, have this 
peculiarity. This little island consists of high hills, on which 
scarcely a bush exists to shelter the animals which inhabit it 
from the continued gales of the Atlantic. The feathers of a long 
tail might incommode the animals, and therefore, we may sup- 
pose, they disappear; and were peacocks to be reared under sim- 
ilar circumstances it is probable that, in the course of successive 
generations, they would lose the beautiful appendage which they 
bring from their native jungles. 

The effects, likewise, of altitude are to be numbered among 
those which modify the characters of animals. In general the 
animals of mountains are smaller and more agile than those of 
the same species inhabiting plains. In man the pulse increases 
in frequency as he ascends into the atmosphere, so that, while at 
the level of the sea the number of beats is 70 in a minute, at the 
height of 4,000 feet the number exceeds 100. The air being rarer 
a greater quantity of it must be drawn into the lungs to afford 
the oxygen necessary to carry off the excess of carbon in the 
system. But gradually, as man and other animals become natu- 
ralized in an elevated country, the digestive and respiratory or- 
gans, and with these the capacity of the chest and abdomen, 
become suited to their new relations. Humboldt remarks on the 
extraordinary development of the chest in the inhabitants of the 
Andes, producing even deformity; and he justly observes that 
this is a consequence of the rarity of the air, which demands an 
extension of the lungs. 

The effects have been referred to of use or exercise in modify- 
ing certain parts of the animal form. The limbs of many ani- 
mals inured or compelled to speed become extended in length, as 
of the dogs employed in the chase of the swifter animals. The 
limbs of an animal deprived of the means of motion become fee- 
ble and small, as the wings of domesticated birds. In the natural 
state the cow has a small udder, yet sufficient to contain the milk 
which her young requires; in the domesticated state, by milk- 
ing her, the organ becomes enlarged so as to contain a quantity 
of milk beyond what the wants of her own offspring demand. 
Nor are the characters thus acquired confined to the individuals 
on which they have been impressed, but may be transmitted to 
their posterity. 



GENBEAL PRINCIPLES OF BEEEDING. 23 

The lessons taught by these illustrations are obvious. 
None of our improved breeds are adapted to all climates 
and all conditions of life. To be at their best they must 
each be kept, as nearly as possible, under the same condi- 
tions of food and climate as those under which they have 
attained their excellence. Any material change in either of 
these conditions is liable ultimately to make a material 
change in the character of the breed. These changes are 
usually unfavorable ones, although not necessarily so. 
Change of itself, when in the direction of better care, more 
generous feeding and more genial climate, will tend to pro- 
duce greater size, a more graceful form and greater excel- 
lence. At the same time improvement in these particulars 
is quite likely to be at the expense of what is termed hardi- 
ness, or ability to withstand exposure and rough usage. 

ACCIDENTAL VARIATIONS OR " SPORTS." 

When animals in a state of nature are not disturbed in 
the enjoyment of the conditions under which they have ex- 
isted for ages, as the American bison or buffalo, the elk, the 
deer, the wolf, etc., the uniformity which prevails among all 
the individuals of the race is remarkable ; and all the pecu- 
liarities of structure, color and character are transmitted 
from generation to generation with almost unerring cer- 
tainty; and here the maxim of the breeder, that "like pro- 
duces like," scarcely ever meets with an exception. Such 
animals are, in the truest sense of the word, thoroughbred, 
or purely bred. There has been no commingling of bJood 
or crossing of various strains to give the race a composite 
character, and hence when we have seen the sire and dam 
we can tell with certainty what the progeny will be. Were 
any of our domesticated animals thoroughbreds, in the 
sense that the bison, the elk or deer are thoroughbreds, the 



24 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

breeding problem would be a simple one, and like would 
invariably produce like so long as the conditions of life 
remained the same. The same principle holds true in the 
reproduction of vegetable life. An absolutely pure seed 
reproduces its kind, but when cross-fertilization has once 
taken place the result is uncertain. If the flower of the 
Baldwin apple tree be fertilized by the pollen of a Winesap 
the seed from this union will produce neither the one nor 
the other. It will be an apple, because both of its parents 
were apples ; but as they were of different varieties, or 
forms or character, so the produce will have a character of 
its own, differing from both of its ancestors. And even if 
the stigma of the Baldwin be fertilized by pollen of its own 
kind, the result is uncertain, because the parent is itself the 
result of cross-fertilization. The application of this prin- 
ciple to the crossing of different races of domestic animals 
is evident, and I shall have occasion to refer to it hereafter. 
But, notwithstanding the uniformity of which I have 
spoken, in the produce of absolutely pure or unmixed races 
there arises occasionally what is termed an accidental varia- 
tion from the established type — a spo7% as it is frequently 
called. The color of the American deer is of a fixed type, 
and a departure from uniformity in this particular is very 
rare— yet a white deer is occasionally found — and so of other 
animals in which the color is an equally well-established 
characteristic. Man has five fingers on each hand and five 
toes on each foot, and in this particular the race is uniform; 
yet a "sport" is occasionally found where the number of 
fingers or toes is increased to six. "When these accidental 
variations once occur they are liable, under favorable con- 
ditions, to be transmitted by inheritance; but under the 
ordinary operations of Nature's laws, when the conditions 
of hfe remain unchanged, these anomalies usually disappear 



GENEKAL PEINCIPIiES OF BKEEDING. 25 

within one or two generations, and the normal and charac- 
teristic type of the race is resumed. A well-authenticated 
instance of the transmission of accidental variations is 
found in the oft-quoted case of Edward Lambert, whose 
whole body, with the exception of the face, the soles of the 
feet and the palms of the hands, was covered with a sort of 
horny excrescence, which was periodically moulted. His six 
sons all inherited the same peculiarity, and the only one of 
the six that survived transmitted it, in turn, to all his sons. 
This abnormal character was transmitted through the male 
line for six generations, and then disappeared.* It is a 
very remarkable illustration of the peculiarities of heredity 
that the female members of this family should have failed 
to inherit this pecuharity. Another very remarkable case 
of this nature which came under my o^vvn observation was 
that of a family residing in Iowa, where the mother and 
three grown daughters were entirely destitute of hair, but 
the sons all had quite as much as the average of men. We 
have also several weU-authenticated cases of the transmis- 
sion, for a few generations, of an abnormal number of fin- 
gers or toes, as in the case of the Colburn family, where 
each of the members had a supernumerary toe and finger, 
which anomaly was transmitted, although irregularly, for 
four generations before it entirely disappeared. The writer 
is personally cognizant of a case in which the second and 
third toe of each foot were united, and which anomaly has 
been transmitted for three generations to one only out of 
an average of eight descendants in each family. But, as 
before remarked, when the conditions of hfe remain 
unchanged these anomalies almost invariably disappear, 
and the descendants ultimately resume the typical charac- 
ter of the race. 

* "Philosophical Transactions," Vol. XVII, p. 23. 



26 A TEEATISE ON HOKSE-BREEDING. 

From the fact that these accidental variations have 
shown themselves to be, in a limited degree, transmissible 
by heredity, we may infer that if selections were made with 
a view to their perpetuation they might ultimately become 
fixed characters. Indeed, there is a considerable weight of 
evidence tending to show that even variations produced by 
mutilation, or by other artificial means, are sometimes 
transmitted, especially when the mutilation has been inti- 
mately connected with the nervous system. Dr. Prosper 
Lucas gives numerous well-authenticated instances of this 
character, and is decidedly of opinion that variations or 
mutilations that are the result of disease are transmissible. 
That eminent scientist. Dr. Brown-Sequard, gives an inter- 
esting account of some experiments with guinea pigs. By 
an operation upon a certain nerve he produced epileptic 
convulsions; and the produce of the animals upon which 
this operation was performed manifested the same symp- 
toms.* But, notwithstanding the numerous instances given 
by the eminent authorities above quoted, I am of the opin- 
ion that the cases of the transmission of these artificially 
produced variations are so rare as to be practically of no 
account in the calculations of the breeder. 

The law which governs the transmission of these acci- 
dental variations, whether they be the result of a "sport" or 
of external influences, appears to be, that when such varia- 
tions from the common type are in antagonism to the con- 
ditions of life to which the individual is subjected, the 
variations are not perpetuated; while, on the other hand, if 
they are in conformity to the existing wants or conditions, 
thereby better fitting the individual to succeed in the strug- 
gle for existence, natural selection and a survival of the 
fittest will tend to perpetuate them. 

* "Proceedings of the Koyal Society of Great Britain," Vol. X, p. 297, 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 27 

From the foregoino: it is evident that the laws of hered- 
ity tend to reproduce in the progeny the character of the 
ancestors, and that when the ancestry is of a fixed and uni- 
form type the maxim that "like produces like" admits of 
few exceptions. Yet there are exceptions even here, as we 
have seen in the case of sports; and the modifications pro- 
duced by changed conditions of life, adaptation to new 
uses and new modes of subsistence, tend to vary what, 
under the operation of the unrestricted laws of heredity, 
would fix a given type and leave the breeder's art power- 
less to effect change or improvement. 

Heredity, which makes of every individual the sum, or 
essence, of that which has lived before him, is essentially a 
conservative force, and opposes all change, all progress, all 
improvement; but evolution, which compels heredity to 
give way to internal and external causes, and modifies both 
the physical and mental organism, places in the breeder's 
hands the means of effecting w^onderful changes. 

EXTENT OF HEREDITARY INFLUENCE. 

I have spoken of two forces that, in their effects, appear 
to be diametrically opposed to each other — heredity, which 
makes of every individual the sum or essence of that which 
has preceded it, and evolution or spontaniety, which con- 
stantly tends to give to animal life new forms and to each 
individual pecuHarities which belong to it alone. Of these 
heredity is unquestionably the stronger force, because, as 
I have before remarked, when uniformity has once been 
established the general principle that like produces like 
finds very rarely an exception. In fact the influence of 
heredity is always present, and in the reproduction of ani- 
mal life never fails to assert itself in a greater or less 
degree. Every living thing brings forth young after its own 



28 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

kind — in some cases the exact counterpart of the parent, 
and in others slightly modified ; but always showing more 
or less of the parent type. Men do not gather grapes of 
thorns nor figs of thistles, neither do Short-horn cows 
bring forth buffalo calves nor draft-mares produce thor- 
oughbred race-horses. Hence, although we may frequently 
meet with very apparent differences between the parents 
and the progeny, yet a moment's reflection will show us 
that the points of resemblance are always very much greater 
than those of difference. We are so accustomed to look at 
the operation of this law in its details that we overlook the 
aggregate of results. We mate a purely-bred Essex sow 
and boar, and look upon it as a matter of course that the 
pigs produced will all be black and possess the general 
characteristics of the Essex breed ; but if, having selected 
our breeding pair with a \dew to the transmission of a pecu- 
liar form of the head or shape of the ear we find in the 
produce that few, and possibly none, possess the peculiarity 
which we have sought to perpetuate, w^e are apt to lose faith 
in the powder of heredity. And yet it would be an argument 
against the uniform operation of this law were the produce 
all to possess the peculiarity which distinguished the sire 
and dam, for this was in them an exceptional feature ; and 
the fact that the pigs possessed, in lieu of this peculiar 
mark, the character that belonged to their ancestors in gen- 
eral is rather a testimony to the inherent power of heredity 
than otherwise. Were our pair of pure Essex swine to pro- 
duce Poland-China or Berkshire or Yorkshire pigs there 
would be room for suspicion or for complaint that the laws 
of heredity had been violated ; but such a transgression of 
Nature's law so rarely occurs that when it does take place 
we may properly call the result a "sport." Hence, the fail- 
ure of an individual to reproduce features that are peculiar 



GENEEAL PKINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 29 

to itself, or of a pair of individuals distinguished for the 
same peculiarity, to transmit it to the offspring should 
excite no surprise in the mind of the breeder. Let it be 
remembered ahvays that heredliy transmits with certainty 
only ichat has become a fixed character in the 7X(ce. Sports, 
accidental variations and individual pecuharities only occur 
in opposition to this law, and their transmission is at best 
uncertain. Heredity may be depended on to govern the 
general characteristics which determine the species and the 
less general ones which distinguish the breed, but when 
we come to individual characteristics, which have never 
acquired a general character in the ancestry, it frequently 
fails. In short, the transmission of the greater share of all 
the characteristics is a thing of universal occurrence, but 
their transmission in toto is an ideal conception that is 
never riealized ; and only in proportion as the ancestry has 
assumed a fixed and unvarying type do we find this ideal of 
the effect of heredity apjDroximated. 

That peculiarity called atavism, or reversion, so often 
noticed in our domesticated animals, and which has so fre- 
quently set at naught the calculations of the breeder, has 
often been quoted as an illustration of the failure of the 
law of heredity; but it is in fact only a tribute to its power. 
By selection, change of chmate or of nutrition, or by cross- 
ing, or by all of these means combined, we may succeed in 
obhterating certain well-defined characteristics, and in 
modifying a given type, until the new form or character 
that we have created will, in its turn, be transmitted with 
reasonable certainty ; but suddenly the germ that has lain 
dormant for so many generations asserts itself, and, greatly 
to our surprise, the characteristics of the original stock will 
reappear. As I have before remarked, these cases of rever- 
sion most frequently occur when cross-breeding is resorted 



30 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

to. The counter currents of hereditary influence, which 
ear by this means brought into contact, having a common 
origin, awaken to life the germ which has for generations 
been a silent factor in each of the newly-created breeds, and 
enables it to again assume control of the organism. 

In addition to the general and well-defined operation of 
the laws of heredity to which I have alluded, its operations 
in the transmission of individual characteristics, although 
not clearly defined, and never to be depended upon, are 
often wonderful. The son is frequently, in some respects, 
the exact duplicate of the father, and the daughter of the 
mother. Sometimes a peculiarity which belonged to the 
grandsire lies dormant in the son, but crops out as strong 
as ever in the second or third generation. Again, we find 
peculiarities transmitted from father to daughter, and from 
mother to son, and even especial sexual characteristics 
transmitted by the father through a daughter to a grand- 
son, or by the mother through a son to a granddaughter ; 
but it is worthy of remark that in no case are all the 
peculiarities of any one individual transmitted. Indeed, it 
would be strange were it otherwise, because each individual 
is the joint product of two other individuals, each endowed 
with peculiarities of his own ; and that each should trans- 
mit itself as an entirety is absolutely impossible. Earely 
do we find in the individual so produced a blending of these 
peculiarities in exact proportion — as one might theoretically 
argue would be the result were the parents of equally well- 
established types— but rather that in some respects the off- 
spring resembles the father, in others the mother, in some 
forming a partial or exact mean between the two, and in 
still others we find the produce utterly unlike either, but 
possessing an individuaUty or character peculiarly its own. 
I might illustrate this by instances from the experience of 



GENERAL PEINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 31 

every breeder, but it is not necessary. The effect has been 
observed by all who have given any attention whatever to 
the subject of breeding. 

THE FORMATION OF BREEDS. 

I have spoken of the uniformity which characterizes 
animals of a given species in a state of nature, and of the 
various causes that serve to disturb this uniformity in our 
domesticated animals when subjected to changed condi- 
tions of climate or nutrition. I have also treated of the 
effect of heredity, which makes of the offspring the sum or 
essence of the qualities that existed in its progenitors, and 
of the opposing law of evolution or spontaniety which tends 
to give to each animal a character of its own. I now pro- 
pose to consider how these known laws and forces may be 
utiHzed in the formation of breeds; and, at the threshold 
of this division of my subject, it is necessary that we should 
understand what is meant by the terms used. 

The animal kingdom is divided by naturalists into four 
great branches, RacUata, Molliisca, Articulata and Verte- 
hrata. These branches are again divided into classes. The 
Vertebrata, to which branch all our domesticated animals 
belong, are divided into eight classes, the last of which are 
the Mammalia, embracing all animals that give suck to 
their young. These classes are divided into genera, and 
these again into species. For example : we have the genus 
Equus, of which the horse, the ass, the zebra and the 
quagga are species; and these different species are again 
divided, with reference to certain peculiarities, into breeds. 
A breed, therefore, is a classification by which we dis- 
tinguish a group of animals possessing qualities which are 
not common to all animals of the same species, and which 
pecuharities have become so firmly established that they 



32 A TEEATISE ON HOKSE-BKEEDING. 

are uniformly transmitted by heredity. Thus, we have the 
Shetland ponies, a breed of horse possessing all the general 
characteristics of the species to which they belong, but 
especially distinguished from other breeds by their diminu- 
tive size; and the Devon s, a breed of cattle uniformly of a 
deep red color, and possessing other distinctive features 
that are not uniformly found in any other breed of cattle. 

It will be observed that these divisions, from first to 
last, are more or less arbitrary; and, as it is impossible to 
define exactly the point where the mineral kingdom leaves 
off and the vegetable kingdom begins, or to distinguish 
positively the line of demarcation between vegetable and 
animal life, so throughout the entire animal kingdom the 
various divisions or classes approach each other by almost 
imperceptible gradations, until in many cases it is impossi- 
ble to locate the dividing line. This is especially true of 
breeds. We may assume any standard that our fancy may 
dictate, as the color or texture of the hair; the shape or size 
of any particular part of the body, as the head or the ear; 
any particular function, as the quantity or quality of the 
milk in cattle; peculiarities of locomotion, as the trot or 
pace in the horse; of habit or instinct, as exemplified in the 
Setter or in the Shepherd dog, etc.; and classifying with 
reference to the possession of any of these assumed peculi- 
arities we may divide a species into breeds. Theoretically 
there is no limit to the extent to which this division into 
breeds might be carried; but practically it is confined to 
marked differences in appearance, function, use, disposi- 
tion or quality. And whenever we have, by any means, 
produced a group or family of animals that possess and 
transmit uniformity in any particular, in which there is a 
lack of uniformity in the species to which they belong, they 
are fairly entitled to be classed as a breed. 



GENEEAL PKINCIPLES OF BEEEDING. 66 

Taking advantage of the almost numberless shades of 
divergence from the original type to be found among the 
different species of domesticated animals, the laws of hered- 
ity and spontaniety enable man to work wonderful trans- 
formations and improvements by selecting such individuals 
as most nearly approximate to his ideal and which mani- 
fest a tendency to assume the desired form. By coupling 
such individuals there is a probability that the quality for 
which they were selected will be reproduced in the off- 
spring, and that it will be even more prominent than in the 
parents. I say there is a probability that this will be the 
result, but it is by no means certain, for, as I have re- 
marked, only the general and firmly fixed characteristics 
which distinguish the species are transmitted with absolute 
certainty, and the transmission of accidental qualities or 
especial excellence in any given particular, while always 
possible, can never be depended upon with certainty. If, 
however, we select parents both distinguished for the same 
accidental variation or accidental excellence the chances 
that it will be transmitted to the offspring are, theoreti- 
cally, twice as great as when only one of the parents is in 
possession of the desired quality; and if in the produce 
from this coupling we see manifestations of the desired 
tendency we may unite animals so bred with an increased 
probabihty that they, in turn, will transmit it to their off- 
spring. It is mainly by this process of careful selection 
and coupling, with a view to the possession of certain desir- 
able qualities, persevered in for many generations, that all 
noted breeders have succeeded in moulding the forms or 
establishing the breeds that have given them celebrity. 

It must be borne in mind that the very processes of 
nature which make it possible for man to effect improve- 
ment in any species of domesticated animals conspire to 



34 A TKEATISE ON HOKSE-BEEEDING. 

make the work of creating a new type from heterogeneous 
materials extremely difficult. In making selections with a 
view to perpetuating any variation from an established type 
we must always begin with such individuals as have mani- 
fested a tendency to assume the desired form and transmit 
it to their offspring. With a mixed and heterogeneous 
ancestry, representing various shades of divergence from 
the original type of the species, progress in any given direc- 
tion by selection will, under the most favorable circum- 
stances, be slow, and the results will frequently be anything 
but satisfactory. There is always a tendency in the off- 
spring of a mixed or improved race to revert to the original 
form of the species from which it is derived. This I have 
shown is most apparent where animals of a widely different 
character are coupled, as in the case of cross-breeding 
with distinct varieties or breeds, which, although not with- 
out its compensating advantages in many cases, introduces 
new elements of divergence. Hence the breeder will often 
find failure where he most expected success. The force of 
heredity is usually exerted to compel the progeny to adhere 
to the character which has become fixed in the species, 
rather than to follow variation from the established type 
that was accidental or spontaneous in the immediate ances- 
try; but when, through selection of both parents with refer- 
ence to this particular for several generations, the influence 
of heredity has once been enlisted in the transmission of an 
accidental variation it lends its powerful aid in favor of the 
perpetuation of the improved form. Spontaniety may occa- 
sionally interpose a new feature or atavism turn us back 
toward the original, but by continuing to select from the 
families which have been bred with reference to the desired 
form we shall eventually succeed in fixing the new type so 
firmly that its transmission will be the rule and failure the 



gEnekal principles of breeding. 35 

exception; and when this point has been reached we have 
succeeded in forming what may justly be called a breed. 

IN-BREEDING AND CROSSING. 

It has been claimed by many that success in establish- 
ing desired forms or qualities may be obtained with the 
greatest certainty, and in the least possible time, when 
selection is confined to the same family. Thus, we find a 
certain male that manifests an unusual degree of excellence 
in some particular, and which, it has been found, he usually 
transmits to his oiispring. We select a female manifesting 
the same tendency, and the two are coupled. Possibly the 
offspring may not show a trace of the unusual excellence 
we have sought to perpetuate. We reject this, and couple 
the same sire and dam a second time, and perhaps we are 
rewarded by offspring possessing the desired quality. This 
produce, if a female, when of proper age is coupled with 
her own sire, and this produce again, if a female, is bred to 
the same male, that was her sire as well as her grandsire. 
This process is sometimes resorted to for three or four suc- 
cessive generations, with a view to intensifying or perpetu-. 
ating a quality for which the sire is especially noted, and 
which it is found he transmits with certainty; for it is a 
well-known, although inexplicable fact, that of two animals 
bred precisely ahke, and manifesting the same spontaneous 
variation, one will transmit the peculiarity with consider- 
able certainty, while not a trace of it will appear in the 
produce of the other. The same course of breeding is often 
resorted to by coupling the son with his own dam, and then, 
if the produce be a female, using upon her the same male, 
that is both brother and sire. This process of couphng 
near relatives, which is known as breeding in-and-in, is un- 
questionably very effectual, and is frequently the only avail- 



36 A TKEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

able source from which breeding-stock can be obtained that 
possess and transmit the desired quality. But there is 
always danger that such a course of breeding will result in 
a loss of constitutional vigor and fertility in the produce, 
and it should be practiced with great caution. As soon as 
any constitutional defect or weakness is noticed as the re- 
sult of breeding in-and-in an infusion of fresh blood must 
be obtained by resorting to a male or female not closely 
related, but possessing as nearly as may be the desired qual- 
ity. It should be borne in mind that defects are quite as 
liable to be transmitted as good qualities, and while we are 
fixing a type of superior excellence in one particular we 
should be careful that we are not, with equal certainty, per- 
petuating a serious defect. 

It is believed by many that breeding in-and-in has a 
refining tendency — that its effect is in the direction of fine- 
ness of texture, lightness of bone, smoothness, evenness 
and polish, at the expense of robustness, strength, vigor 
and power; hence, it is one of the most potent of agents in 
the production of dwarf breeds, and the main reliance of 
breeders of Bantam fowls and other diminutive races. It 
is certainly a powerful and invaluable agent in the hands of 
an intelligent person in the formation or modification of 
a breed, but can never be successfully followed by general 
farmers, who must produce hardy, prolific and vigorous 
animals. 

The great number of intermarriages which took place in 
the royal family of Egypt during the reign of the Ptolemys 
has occasionally been referred to by the advocates of close 
in-breeding; and the magnificent personal appearance of 
these rulers, their close resemblance in form and feature, 
and especially the widely-famed beauty of countenance and 
form, as well as the mental vigor displayed by Cleopatra, 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 37 

the last of the line, have often been quoted as a strong 
argument against the theory that breeding in-and-in neces- 
sarily jDroduces physical deterioration; but a close examina- 
tion of the hne of descent leaves the balance of the argu- 
ment rather on the other side. Galton, in his "Hereditary 
Genius," in speaking of this family, says: 

This race of Ptolemys is at first sight exceedingly interesting, 
on account of the extraordinary number of their close intermar- 
riages. They were matched in-and-in like prize cattle; but these 
near marriages were unprolific — the inheritance mostly passed 
through other wives. Indicating the Ptolemys by numbers, ac- 
cording to the order of their succession, II married his niece, and 
afterwards his sister; IV his sister; VI and VII were brothers, 
and they both consecutively married tlie same sister — VII also 
subsequently married his niece; VIII married two of his own 
sisters consecutively; XII and XIII were brothers, and both con- 
secutively married their sister, the famous Cleopatra. Thus 
there are no less than nine cases of close intermarriages distrib- 
uted among the thirteen Ptolemys. However, when we put them 
into the form of a genealogical tree we shall clearly see that the 
main line of descent was untouched by these intermarriages, ex- 
cept in the two cases of III and of VIII. The personal beauty 
and vigor of Cleopatra, the last of the race, can not therefore be 
justly quoted in disproof of the evil effects of close breeding. On 
the contrary, the result of Ptolemaic experience was distinctly to 
show that intermarriages are followed by sterility. 

Galton then proceeds to show that nearly all of these in- 
cestuous marriages were unfruitful, the only exceptions 
being that of Ptolemy II with his niece, from which was 
produced Ptolemy III, and Ptolemy VII with his niece, the 
produce being Ptolemy VIII, the grandfather of Cleopatra, 
the descent in all other cases passing through wives that 
were not nearly related to this family.* 

The testimony of experienced naturalists and of intelli- 

* " Hereditary Genius," by Francis Galton, p. 152, 



38 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

gent and careful observers among practical breeders is uni 
formly in favor of the proposition that a cross in the blood 
gives increased size and \'igor to the produce. It is an 
equally well-established fact that cross-breeding, or the 
pairing of animals of distinct varieties, usually results in 
increased fertility; but it is rather singular that, while this 
result usually attends the pairing of distinct varieties of 
the same species, yet if cross-breeding be carried so far as 
to unite distinct species, although increased size and vigor 
are still attained, fertility is almost entirely lost. A familiar 
illustration is seen in the produce of the horse and the ass. 
The mule, resulting from such a union, is often larger than 
either parent, and is noted for its hardiness and powers of 
endurance, but the power of reproduction is totally want- 
ing. The same is true of most other hybrids. It is a sin- 
gular fact that a loss of fertility is also one among the very 
first bad results manifested from long-continued breeding 
in-and-in— which is the converse or opposite of violent out- 
crossing; and yet all experience proves this to be true. 

The space that can be devoted to a discussion of this 
branch of the subject will not admit of an elaborate investi- 
gation of the principles of genesis by which this apparent 
contradiction is explained. The majority of my readers are 
more concerned with facts and results than with theories 
and philosophical abstractions. But, at the risk of giving 
more of theory than will be relished, I will venture to state 
that, in order to produce a sexual union which shall be 
fruitful, and call into life a new organism, according to the 
opinion of most scientists, it is essential that the sperm-cell 
and the germ-cell, which, united, form the source of life to 
the new being, shall each proceed from a different organ- 
ism; and that breeding in-and-in, as usually practiced — 
being the selection of individuals of as nearly as may be a 



GENEEAL PKINCIPIiES OF BREEDING. 39 

similar organization, with the avowed purpose of creating 
uniformity of character — will, in course of time, if not 
counteracted by opposing influences, produce such a unity 
of organism in the members of a given family as will result 
in a loss of that differentiation which appears to be neces- 
sary to insure the fusion of the sperm-cell of the one with 
the germ-cell of the other. 

In commenting upon this aspect of genesis, Herbert 
Spencer says: 

Remembering the fact that among the higher classes of organ- 
isms fertilization is always effected by combining the sperm-cell 
of one individual with the germ-cell of another, and joining with 
it the fact that among hermaphrodite organisms the germ-cells 
developed in any individual are usually not fertilized by sperm- 
cells developed in the same individual, we see reason for think- 
ing that the essential thing in fertilization is the unian of 
specially-fitted portions of different organisms. If fertilization 
depended on the peculiar properties of sperm-cell and germ-cell, 
as such, then in hermaphrodite organisms it would be a matter 
of indifference whether the united sperm-cells and germ-cells 
were those of the same individual or those of different individ- 
uals. But the circumstance that there exist in such organisms 
elaborate appliances for mutual fertilization shows that unlike- 
ness of derivation in the united reproductive centers is the desid- 
eratum.* 

After explaining at some length the apparent contradic- 
tion of this theory which is found in plants that are self- 
fertilizing, Mr. Spencer further remarks: 

There is reason to believe that self-fertilization, which at the 
best is comparatively inefficient, loses all efficiency in course of 
time. After giving an account of the provisions for an occa- 
sional, or a frequent, or a constant crossing between flowers, and 
after quoting Prof. Huxley to the effect that among hermaphro- 
dite animals there is no case in which "the occasional influence 
of a distinct individual can be shown to be physically impossi- 

* "Principles of Biology," Vol. I, p. 279. 



40 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

ble," Mr. Darwin writes: "From these several considerations, 
and from the many special facts which I have collected, but 
which I am not here able to give, I am strongly inclined to sus- 
pect that, both in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, an occa- 
sional intercross with a distinct individual is a law of nature. 

* * * In none, as I suspect, can self-fertilization go on for 
perpetuity." This conclusion, based wholly on observed facts, is 
just the conclusion to which the foregoing argument points. 

* * "^ If, then, in a self-fertilizing organism, and its self-fer- 
tilizing descendants, such contrasts as originally existed among 
the physiological units are progressively obliterated — if, conse- 
quently, there can no longer be a segregation of different physio- 
logical units in different sperm-cells and germ-cells, self-fertili- 
zation will become impossible; step by step the fertility will 
diminish, and the series will finally die out.* 

A similar view of this subject is presented by Mr. Dar- 
win in a letter published in the London Agricultural Ga- 
zette, of May, 1878, from which I extract the following: 

I will venture to add a few remarks on the general question of 
close interbreeding. Sexual reproduction is so essentially the 
same in plants and animals that I think we may fairly apply con- 
clusions drawn from the one kingdom to the other. From a long 
series of experiments on plants, given in my book "On the Effects 
of Cross and Self-Fertilization," the conclusion seems clear that 
there is no mysterious evil in the mere fact of the nearest rela- 
tions breeding together: but that evil follows (independently of 
inherited disease or weakness) from the circumstance of near 
relations generally possessing a closely similar constitution. 
However little we may be able to explain the cause, the facts 
detailed by me show that the male and female sexual elements 
must be differentiated to a certain degree, in order to unite 
properly and to give birth to a vigorous progeny. Such differ- 
entiation of the sexual elements follows from the parents and 
their ancestors having lived during some generations under 
different conditions of life. 

The closest interbreeding does not seem to induce variability, 
or a departure from the typical form of the race or family, but 

* "Principles of Biology," Vol. I, pp. 281, 282, 



genekaij pkinciples of beeeding. 41 

it causes loss of size, of constitutional vigor in resisting unfavor- 
able influences, and often of fertility. On the other hand, a cross 
between plants of the same sub-variety, which have been grown 
during some generations under different conditions, increases to 
an extraordinary degree the size and vigor of the offspring. 

Some kinds of plants bear self-fertilization much better than 
others ; nevertheless it has been proved that these profit greatly 
by a cross with a fresh stock. So it appears to be with animals, 
for Short-horn cattle — perhaps all cattle — can withstand close 
interbreeding with very little injury ; but if they could be crossed 
with a distinct stock without any loss of their excellent qualities, 
it would be a most surprising fact if the offspring did not also 
profit in a very high degree in constitutional vigor. If, therefore, 
anyone chose to risk breeding from an animal which suffered 
from some inheritable disease or weakness, he would act wisely 
to look out, not merely for a perfectly sound animal of the other 
sex, but for one belonging to another strain, which had been bred 
during several generations at a distant place, under as different 
conditions, as to soil, climate, etc., as possible, for in this case he 
might hope that the offspring, by having gained in constitutional 
vigor, would be enabled to throw off the taint in their blood. 

The view of the case presented by Darwin and Herbert 
Spencer in the foregoing extracts affords an explanation of 
many apparent contradictions which result from breeding 
in-and-in. The farmer who permits his stock to pair mis- 
cellaneously, without infusing fresh blood for many genera- 
tions—as is the case with some— must necessarily practice 
breeding in-and-in ; but, as in such cases the stock is almost 
invariably, at the beginning, of a heterogeneous character, 
it will require a much greater period of time before breeding 
in-and-in shall have produced a sufficient degree of unity of 
organism to interfere with fertility or to cause a loss of 
vitality than in cases where the stock, to begin with, is of a 
uniform type, or " purely-bred." In such cases, also, there 
is no effort on the part of the farmer to produce uniformity 
by selection of individuals for coupling. If there be any 
4 



42 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

selection at all the standard by which it is made is a capri- 
cious one, changing from year to year ; and it is a well- 
known fact that in such hands uniformity of type is never 
reached, neither have any bad effects usually been observed 
from in-breeding in such cases. 

If the theory above advanced be correct no bad effects 
will necessarily result from breeding in-and-in until uni- 
formity of type, which implies unity of organism, is attained; 
and this, as we have seen, when breeding from a mixed 
stock, is a very slow process. 

Upon this aspect of the case Herbert Spencer remarks : 

Relations must, on the average of cases, be individuals whose 
physiological units are more nearly alike than usual. Animals of 
different varieties must be those whose physiological units are 
more unlike than usual. In the one case the unlikeness of the 
units may frequently be iu sufficient to produce fertilization; or, 
if sufficient to produce fertilization not sufficient to produce that 
active molecular change required for vigorous development. In 
the other case both fertilization and vigorous development will 
be made probable. 

Nor are we without a cause for the irregular manifestation of 
these general tendencies. The mixed physiological units com- 
posing any organism being, as we have seen, more or less segre- 
gated in the reproductive centers it throws off, there may arise 
various results, according to the degrees of difference among the 
units and the degrees in which the units are segregated. Of two 
cousins who have married the common grandparents may have 
had either similar or dissimilar constitutions; and if their con- 
stitutions were dissimilar the probability that their married 
grandchildren will have offspring will be greater than if their 
constitutions were similar. Or the brothers and sisters from 
whom these cousins descended, instead of severally inheriting 
the constitutions of their parents in tolerably equal degrees, may 
have severally inherited them in very different degrees; in which 
last case intermarriages among the grandchildren will be less 
likely to prove infertile. Or the brothers and sisters from whom 
these cousins descended may severally have married persons very 



gbneeaij principles of breeding. 43 

like or very unlike themselves, and from this cause there may 
have resulted either an undue likeness or a due unlikeness 
between the married cousins. These several causes, conspiring 
and conflicting in endless ways and degrees, will work multiform 
effects. * * * Hence it may happen that among offspring of 
nearly-related parents there may be some in which the want of 
vigor is not marked, and others in which there is decided want 
of vigor. So that we are alike shown why in-and-in breeding 
tends to diminish both fertility and vigor, and why the effect can 
not be a uniform effect, but only an average effect.* 

It follows, then, as a practical deduction from the fore- 
going, that the more purely bred and uniform in type our 
stock becomes the greater is the danger from breeding in- 
and-in. That while, as before remarked, it is a powerful 
agent in the hands of a skillful and intelligent person in 
the formation of a breed, it must be used with the greatest 
of caution with animals of a uniform type, and that with 
miscellaneously-bred stock its evil effects are comparatively 
slow in showing themselves. 

Many who have given the subject of breeding as a sci- 
ence only a casual investigation — who have studied only the 
methods of a Bakewell, a Colling, a Booth, or a Bates, with- 
out taking into account the circumstances under which 
these methods icere practiced — have hastily adopted the 
conclusion that what was successful in such hands as theirs 
must still be correct in practice; that because Bakewell and 
Colling bred in-and-in to fix a desired type, and by con- 
tinuing that process for a time succeeded in effecting sub- 
stantial improvement in their cattle and sheep, it must 
necessarily follow that the surest method of preserving the 
excellence attained by them is to continue in precisely the 
same road. Or, to put it rather more mildly, because in 
the formation of a breed these men experienced little if 

* "Principles of Biology," Vol. I, pp. 283 and 284. 



44 A TKEATISE ON HOESE-BKEEDING. 

any damage from the practice of breeding in-and-in to the 
extent to which they carried it, modern breeders of thor- 
oughbreds can continue to breed in-and-in with impunity! 

There is no one point upon which practical breeders, as 
well as scientists, are more perfectly agreed than that the 
ultimate tendency of breeding in-and-in is injurious — that 
when carried to excess it will always result in a loss of con- 
stitutional vigor in the produce; that while its tendency 
may be in the direction of fineness of texture, lightness of 
bone, smoothness, evenness and polish, it is invariably at the 
expense of robustness, strength, vigor and power. On the 
other hand, scientists as well as practical breeders, with 
perhaps equal unanimity, concur in the belief that a cross 
in the blood usually gives increased size and vigor to the 
procTuce, and that cross-breeding, or the pairing of animals 
of distinct varieties, usually results in increased fertility. 

The belief has largely obtained among practical farmers 
and feeders that all purely-bred races or breeds are lacking 
in hardiness and stamina, and that when breeding for the 
dairy, the shambles or for practical use on the farm the 
greatest measure of success is attained through the medium 
of cross-breeding. The first of these assumptions is not 
necessarily true. When the breeding and management of 
purely-bred races have been in accordance with Nature's 
laws there is no foundation for the assertion that they are 
deficient in hardiness ; and the wide-spread belief to the 
contrary has resulted mainly from the bad efiPects which in- 
evitably follow long-continued incestuous or in-and-in 
breeding. That with certain kinds of purely-bred stock 
this course of breeding has been so extensively practiced as 
to very greatly impair the vitality of the animals so bred 
no intelligent, careful observer will deny ; while in others, 
where selection has constantly been made with reference to 



GENERAIj PRINCIPIiES OF BREEDING. 45 

hardiness, strength, and endurance — where close in-breed- 
ing has been avoided, and where there has been no unnatu- 
ral forcing and pampering, the pure races or breeds have 
no peers in these valuable qualities. The lack of hardiness 
complained of in purely-bred stock is an accident, due to a 
peculiar course of breeding or treatment, not justly charge- 
able to the simple fact that the animal is a purely-bred 
one, and not necessarily following the course of breeding 
essential to the creation of a thoroughbred. The thor- 
oughbred race-horse, or "blood-horse," as he is often called, 
the purest and best established of all our breeds of domes- 
ticated animals, is a pointed illustration of this fact, and 
the reason is obvious. With the breeder of the race-horse 
vitality has always been a paramount consideration, as upon 
this depends the ability of the horse to last in a long and 
closely-contested race ; hence a course of breeding that had 
a tendency to impair the vital forces has never found favor 
with breeders of these horses. None of the practices that 
have combined to impair the strength and vigor of purely- 
bred cattle, sheep, or swine, have been resorted to by them. 
In-breeding and pampering have both been frowned upon. 
Selection of the stoutest and best specimens of the breed 
has been the touchstone of their success. Once in and 
twice out has been as near an approach to in-breeding as 
has ever found favor among them ; hence we find the thor- 
oughbred horse of today the superior of all the other repre- 
sentatives of the equine race in speed and endurance. 

It appears evident that if the laws of heredity are as I 
have here stated — that is : that the tendency of in-breeding 
with established races or breeds is to weaken the vital 
forces, and that cross-breeding gives increased vigor and 
vitality — we have here a lucid explanation of why the gen- 
eral farmer finds it most profitable to raise grade or cross- 



46 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

bred stock for the dairy or for feeding purposes. The 
purely-bred races or breeds, as a rule, have been perfected 
to a wonderful degree in certain qualities ; and when the 
general farmer, desiring to improve his flocks and herds in 
any of these particulars, procures a purely-bred male to use 
as a sire, even though such animal may be suffering some 
of the bad effects of in-breeding himself, the excellence that 
characterizes the breed to which he belongs, reinforced and 
reinvigorated by contact with the current of fresh blood 
that he meets in the farmer's mixed stock, gives a produce 
of greatly increased value for everthing except the purposes 
of reproduction. All intelligent breeders agree in condemn- 
ing close in-breeding ; but they are not agreed as to what 
constitutes close in-breeding. May we not, upon the theory 
herein advanced, base a rule which will safely govern 
our practice ? With purely-bred stock, or well-established 
breeds, keep as far from in-breeding as is compatible with 
uniformity of type and purity of blood. In the formation 
of a breed from heterogeneous materials use it as the most 
potent of all agents, without fear of bad results, provided 
the parents are healthy, vigorous and well formed, until a 
considerable degree of uniformity has been reached ; bear- 
ing in mind the cardinal fact that in proportion as unity of 
form and organism is attained constitutional vigor and fer- 
tility is endangered by such a course of breeding. May we 
not, also, find in this theory an explanation of the well- 
known fact that in-bred animals which are barren when 
coupled with each other frequently prove fruitful when 
united with individuals of a different breed ? 

THE VALUE OF PEDIGEEE. 

A pedigree is the genealogy of an animal. As usually 
understood it consists of the names of the ancestors for a 



geneeaij peinciples of bkeeding. 47 

greater or less number of generations. Its value consists, 
not so much in the number of generations through which 
the ancestry can be traced to some distinguished progeni- 
tor, as in the quality or character of the ancestry; and in 
proportion as we approach the "top" of a pedigree — that is, 
the immediate progenitors of a given animal — the more 
important does the character of the ancestry become. 

As has been clearly shown in the preceding pages, it is a 
well-settled fact in breeding that, as a rule, the longer the 
line of descent in unbroken succession through ancestors 
uniformly distinguished for unusual excellence the greater 
is the probability that that peculiar excellence will be trans- 
mitted. Hence, as I have before said, the true test of the 
value of a pedigree is not so much in its length as in the 
merits of the individuals that compose it. Four or five 
"top crosses" with animals of rare individual merit make a 
pedigree of much greater value to the practical breeder 
than ten, twenty or as many more as you like of animals of 
no special excellence. The farther back this genealogy of 
good animals extends, and the more uniform the quality of 
the ancestry, the better ; but the more immediate the 
ancestry in any given case the more important does its 
quality become. Each immediate parent contributes one- 
half of the blood or pedigree inheritance of the individual, 
while each great-grandam or sire contributes one-eighth 
only ; and the farther the removal the more unimportant 
does any given factor or cross become for good or evil in a 
pedigree. However desirable it may be to have a record 
connecting our horses with Flying Childers, Eclipse or Mes- 
senger, and our cattle with Hubback or Favorite, at a 
distance of ten to twenty generations, it is manifestly of 
far greater importance to know that our own cattle and 
horses are good, and that their ancestors for the last four 



48 A TEEATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

or five generations were of surpassing excellence. If our 
own animals are good, and the top crosses have been uni- 
formly of the same character, we may reasonably expect 
the progeny to be satisfactory; while, on the contrary, if 
we have no special merit in the sire and dam, or their im- 
mediate ancestors, we may show as many lines as we hke to 
some great ancestor ten or fifteen generations removed and 
it will not wipe out the stain of the defective recent 
crosses. 

No pedigree can be a good one that does not usually 
produce good animals ; no pedigree should be prized above 
other pedigrees unless it usually produces better animals. 
If, tried by this test, any pedigree fails, no matter how 
much it may have been idolized, its value is fictitious and 
its effect is hurtful rather than beneficial. The only true 
aristocracy of blood is one that brings superior merit ; 
without this it is a delusion and a snare. No matter what 
it may have been eight or ten generations ago, if from a 
wrong system of breeding, if from a lack of care in selec- 
tion, if from incestuous breeding, or from any other cause, 
any particular strain has ceased to be uniformly superior, 
in itself, it has lost its patent of nobility. Let all young 
breeders, and old ones too, for that matter, try "pedigrees," 
and "families," and "strains" by this test, without being 
dazed by some imaginary halo that attaches to a name 
handed down from the misty traditions of the past, and it 
will be the better for them, no matter what particular line 
of breeding they may be engaged in. 

RELATIVE SIZE OF SIRE AND DAM. 

The relative size of sire and dam is a subject upon 
which much has been written, and upon which I am satis- 
fied there has been much wrong teaching. It is true that 



GBNEBAIi PEESrcrPLES OF BREEDING. 49 

nearly all writers upon the subject have laid doT\Ta the 
rule that, in coupling, the male should be smaller than the 
female ; but it is also true that very many persons write 
dogmatically upon subjects which they know but little about; 
and it is further true that writers upon heredity, for years 
and years past, have done little more than to repeat each 
other, accepting what has been said by others as true with- 
out question, not knowing or caring to know anything 
about the facts in the case. I imbibed the doctrine that 
the male should be smaller than the female from my early 
reading upon the subject, and began writing from the same 
standpoint ; but very early in my career as a writer upon 
stock-breeding my esteemed friend, Judge T. C. Jones, of 
Ohio, from whom I have taken many valuable lessons, 
called my attention to the manifest unsoundness of this 
theory, and said that he was fully convinced that the teach- 
ing of the books upon this subject was all wrong, and that, 
while he did not advocate great disparity in the size of 
parents, he was satisfied that when there was a difference it 
should be the reverse of what the books taught— that the 
sire should, as a rule, be larger than the female. It was a 
startling proposition to me, but it set me to thinking and 
watching the subject closely; and now, looking back over 
more than a quarter of a century of experience, I say em- 
phatically that Nature's plan, as exemplified in all mam- 
malia, is that the male parent shall be the larger of the two. 
In all animals, from the horse do^vn to the pig, wild as well 
as tame, the male, as a rule, is larger than the female of the 
same breed. No observant man can have failed to notice 
this. What pure breed or race of animals, in any country, 
can be named as an exception to this rule? And is not this 
also true of the human race? How many of my readers are 
there who can call to mind numerous instances of hand- 



50 A TBEATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

some, well-formed and robust children the offspring of a 
large father and a small mother! The same result has been 
observed in hundreds of other cases where large draft- 
horses have been coupled with small or medium-sized 
mares. In fact it is the almost universal testimony of those 
who have watched closely the result of the cross of the im- 
ported draft stallions brought to this country from France 
and Great Britain, that the very best results have been ob- 
tained, not from large, coarse, and loosely-made mares, as 
theorists would have us suppose would be the case, but 
from those of medium size, compactly made and highly 
bred. 

The excellent results obtained by crossing bulls of the 
large breeds upon our small, native cows — also the health, 
vigor, and fine form of the lambs got by large Cotswold 
rams out of small ewes of the Merino breed, all go to prove 
that this supposed law of nature is no law at all. In fact, 
if we study Nature, we shall be compelled to admit that her 
law is just the reverse of what has been claimed ; for, with 
scarcely an exception, through aU the stages of animal life, 
the males of any given species, race or breed are larger 
than the females. It is, therefore, safe to assume that the 
results are more likely to be satisfactory where large males 
and small females are coupled for breeding purposes than 
where the reverse is the method practiced. 

I would not recommend, neither does it follow as a legit- 
imate deduction from this general law, that great extremes 
of size should be coupled. In fact, nature has herself in- 
terposed many obstacles to prevent such a course of breed- 
ing. 

There is not, as has often been alleged, any increased 
danger in parturition from the use of sires larger than the 
dams. It is the dam that determines the size and growth of 



GENEEAIi PKINCIPIiES OF BKEEDING. 51 

the foetus, and not the sire. Wrong presentations, faulty 
construction of some parts of the organs of generation or 
of the pelvic bones of the female, an emaciated or too 
plethoric condition of the dam at the time of parturition, 
an unnatural or deformed foetus, are the usual causes of 
difficult parturition, and these conditions are brought 
about independent of the relative size of sire and dam. 

It goes for nothing to say that improvement in any breed 
has resulted from the use of males of a smaller breed upon 
females of a larger. If one desires to bring about improve- 
ment in any direction he must select with a view to that 
quality, independent of other considerations. Were I de- 
sirous of improving the butter-producing quality of the 
Holstein cow I should use a Jersey bull, notwithstanding 
the male might be smaller than the female. I would couple 
large, coarse- wooled ewes with a Merino ram if I desired to 
increase the density of the fleece; and I would breed large 
draft-mares to thoroughbred or trotting sires if I desired 
to procure fine style, better action and greater powers of 
endurance. But all of this is independent of, and does not 
conflict with, the general law of relative size, and does not 
disprove the proposition that it is nature's plan that the 
male should be the larger of the two parents. 

INFLUENCE OF FIRST IMPEEGNATION. 

One of the most interesting as well as one of the most 
stoutly-disputed questions connected with the business of 
stock-breeding is this : Does the first impregnation of a 
female have any influence over the character of the produce 
from subsequent impregnations ? Experienced practical 
breeders have been arrayed on opposing sides in discussing 
this question, and each has been ready to maintain his 
position by illustrations from his own observation. Prof. 



52 A TKEATISE ON HOKSE-BEEEDING. 

James Law, of Cornell University, who is one of the most 
learned and eminent of living veterinarians, and whose 
reputation as a patient, conscientious, painstaking investi- 
gator of problems of this nature is second to that of no 
other man in the world, was requested by me some 
years ago to prepare an exhaustive article upon this 
subject. He complied with this request, and the article, 
which was published at the time in a monthly journal which 
was then under my charge, I herewith reproduce as the 
most thorough treatise upon this interesting subject I have 
yet seen : 

Physiologists and breeders have long noticed that the influence 
of the sire is not always confined to his immediate offsprirg, but 
Vyat the subsequent progeny of the same female by other males 
often reproduce in a remarkable manner the personal traits of 
the first sire and his produce. All quadrupeds show this tendency 
in a greater or less degree. 

We find the statement made by the immortal Haller: that 
where a mare had borne a mule by an ass and afterwards a foal 
by a horse, the foal exhibited traces of the ass. The same thing 
has been noticed by Becker, Haussman, Low and others. Lord 
Moreton bred a hybrid between a young chestnut mare (seven- 
eighths Arabian) and a quagga. The hybrid had the bristly 
mane, striped body and large head of its sire. One and two 
years later this mare was covered by a black Arabian horse, and 
the resulting foals had the erect, short, bristly mane, the dun 
color, and the stripes on neck, body and limbs of the quagga. A 
third foal, produced two years later, got by the same Arabian 
horse, still showed the same marks of the quagga. This case is all 
the more striking that the mane of the Arab is especially soft and 
silky and lies flat on the side of the neck, and that the Arabian 
horse has never been known to show a striped marking of the 
body. A case entirely similar is recorded by Harvey. A mare 
of Sir Gore Ouseley's was bred to a zebra, producing a hybrid, 
and in the two succeeding years was put to two thoroughbred 
horses, but the foals in both cases were striped and partook of 
the character of the zebra. In the Royal Stud at Hampton Court 



GENEEAL PEINCIPLES OF BKEEDING. 53 

a number of mares were bred to the horse Colonel, and the fol- 
lowing year to the horse Acteeon, but the progeny of the last 
horse bore unequivocal marks of the horse Colonel, the sire of 
their half-brothers and sisters. Again, a colt belonging to Earl 
of SuflSeld, got by Laurel, strongly resembled the horse Camel 
by which his dam had had a foal the preceding year. 

McGillivray records the following cases: A polled Angus 
heifer bore her first calf to a Short-horn bull, and was then 
served by a black polled Angus bull: but the calf resulting from 
the last connection approached the Short-horn bull in color and 
shape, and grew horns. Another polled Angus cow was served 
by a cross-bred bull (one-fourth polled Angus, three-fourths 
Short-horn) and bore a cross. Next year, though served by a 
pure black polled Angus bull, the result was still a cross, as 
shown by shape and color. 

Dr. Wells, of Grenada, put a flock of white ewes to a choco- 
late-colored, hairy ram, and the following year to a white ram 
of their own breed, and yet the lambs got by the last had the 
fleece more or less of a chocolate hue and largely mixed with 
hair. Mr. Shaw, of Leochel Cushnie, Aberdeen, divided his flock 
of black-faced Highland ewes, and had one part served by a 
Leicester ram and the other by a Southdown. The next year he 
had all served by a ram of their own race, but the lambs showed 
the persistent influence of the English rams in their hornless 
heads and brownish faces. Again, in the following year, they 
were served by a pure black-faced ram and there still resulted 
two hornless lambs, two dun-faced, with very small horns, and 
three white-faced, with horns quite rudimentary. 

Mr. Giles put a black-and-white Essex sow to a wild boar of a 
deep chestnut color, and obtained a crossed litter, with the color 
of the wild boar predominating in several. After the wild boar 
had been some time dead this sow was put to a black-and-white 
boar of her own breed and produced a litter of pigs, some of 
which were distinctly marked with chestnut. A second litter, by 
a boar of her own breed, again showed the chestnut markings, 
which had hitherto been unknown in the pure Essex. 

Among dog-fanciers it is a matter of notoriety that an en- 
tire litter of pure-bred puppies can not be expected from a thor- 
oughbred bitch which has once been lined by a dog of another 
breed. This was noted by the French poet Jacques Savary as 



54 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

early as the middle of the 17th century, and is confirmed by 
writers on dogs generally. I will quote but one example from 
Harvey: A pure Skye terrier, of a dark brown color, with red 
legs, bore two litters of puppies to a mongrel cur, all of which 
were colored like the sire — black, with red legs and white feet. 
On the third occasion she was lined by a pure Skye terrier, of a 
grey color; and, to avoid accidents, was locked up with this dog 
during the whole continuance of the heat. The issue was two 
puppies closely resembling the mongrel cur in color, shape and 
general appearance. Instances of the same kind have fallen 
under the observation of almost every dog-fancier. 

Many have sought to explain the phenomenon as a simple 
result of the strong impression made upon the mind of the dam 
by the sire of her earlier offspring; and, doubtless, this may 
sometimes co-operate, but is altogether inadequate to account for 
the frequency of the occurrence. The imagination affects the 
progeny of a very limited number of females, whereas the phe- 
nomenon we are considering — among the domestic quadrupeds — 
is the rule rather than the exception, so that a more satisfactory 
cause must be sought for. 

McGrillivray advances the theory that the elements from the 
blood of the foetus, absorbed into that of the mother, contami- 
nate her blood, and reduce her to a cross, thus rendering her for- 
ever after incapable of producing a pure-bred offspring. Not 
that he supposes the blood of the foetus, as such, to circulate 
within the veins of the mother^ but that fine particles from the 
blood of the offspring pass through the intervening layers of 
cells, and thus reach the maternal blood and reproduce them- 
selves there. But the whole theory is an assumption. We know 
that the placenta, or after-birth, by which the foetus is connected 
with the mother, serves the purposes of both stomach and lungs. 
From the glands in the walls of the womb a milk-like liquid is 
constantly secreted, v/hich, being absorbed by the foetal vessels 
branching in the placenta, is carried into the blood of the young 
animal and serves to nourish it, just as the milk from the udder 
does after birth. Again, from the blood of the offspring circulat- 
ing in the placenta carbonic acid is given off and taken into the 
maternal blood, while oxygen supplied by the blood of the dam 
is taken up by the blood of the foetus. So far these membranes 
fulfill the functions of stomach and lungs to the young animal. 



GENEEAIi PEINCIPIiES OF BEEEDING. 55 

But we have no proof of living particles from the blood of the 
foetus entering the circulation of the mother, unless we accept as 
such the very phenomenon we are endeavoring to find an expla- 
nation for; and this would only be admissible if no other or 
more reasonable explanation could be found. 

A slight modification of McGillivray's theory is that of Dar- 
win, advanced in his doctrine of pangenesis. He teaches that 
throughout the blood and system of every animal there are liv- 
ing particles, infinitesimally minute, but with certain plastic or 
formative powers, by virtue of which they can build up particular 
forms or produce peculiar characteristics in the animal economy. 
That such particles may remain dormant for months or years, 
or even for a number of successive generations of animals, being, 
meanwhile, transmitted from parent to offspring through the 
microscopic o^^lm and spermatozoon, and will only be roused to 
activity and growth and build up the forms and beings, like those 
from which they were derived, when there occurs a change of 
circumstances favorable to their development. By this means 
he explains many cases of apparent "sports," or variations from 
the type of the known ancestors; many sudden advances in 
excellence and retrogressions. 

As applied to the phenomenon under consideration it is taught 
that these infinitesimal particles (gemmules), passing through 
the membranes from the blood of the foetus into that of the 
mother, circulate with it, affecting the ovarium of the female, 
so that the ovules and offspring subsequently produced by her 
when impregnated by other males are plainly affected and 
hybridized by the first male. 

It will be readily conceded that such particles circulating in 
the blood of the mother will be much less likely to affect her own 
system, already matured, insusceptible and imdergoing the 
changes of nutrition only, than the growing elements of the 
ovum or the tissues of the embryo in active process of growth, 
and with a power of development equal in some cases to the 
reproduction of an organ accidentally lost. Much, indeed, 
might be said in favor of the theory; yet, as in its less elaborate 
form propounded by McGillivray, it is founded on pure assump- 
tion and supported by no clear proof. The gradual extinction of 
the influence of the first male in successive pregnancies by other 
males is what would scarcely be expected if the blood was 



56 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

charged with gem mules from the first capable of reproducing 
themselves and especially prone to rapid increase and develop- 
ment in connection with the development of offspring. Again, 
similar elements must be introduced into the maternal blood 
when the vital fluid has been transfused into her veins from those 
of another person or of a beast, and the ovules then in course of 
development in her ovaries must be "affected and hybridized" 
if such blood is not exactly identical in composition with her 
own. But though transfusion of blood into the female system is 
not uncommon, and though that blood has been repeatedly taken 
from a person of a widely different race, no complaint has ever 
been made that the children have been thereby affected. 

A more satisfactory explanation is that advanced by the 
present writer, in a paper read, in 1875, before the American 
Public Health Association: 

It is a well-known pathological fact that adjacent cells tend to en- 
graft their plastic or formative powers upon each other. I prick my 
skin with a needle. Immediately the injured cells and nuclei undergo 
a rapid increase in size and numbers. But the effect does not end there; 
those adjacent take on a similar action, and the extent of the resulting 
inflammation is only limited by that of the injury and the susceptibility 
of the parts. Again, in placing a slice of scarf skin in the middle of a 
raw sore we inoculate the cells of the adjoining granulations and em- 
power them to develop scarf skin. How, then, can we avoid the con- 
clusion that the impregnated ovum impresses its own characters on the 
mass of the decidua, and through this on the maternal mucous mem- 
brane, and that this in its turn impresses its characters on the mem- 
brane and embryo of the next succeeding conception ? 

It has been opposed to the theory of contamination of the 
mother^s blood, that in the case of woman the father of the first 
child rarely affects the appearance of those by other fathers. 
Mr. Allen has known instances in which wliite women had their 
first children by negroes, and afterward marrying white men 
had children as purely white as those of their neighbors. In- 
stances in which an opposite result has ensued he attributes to 
the effect of imagination. Now, the theory I offer will perfectly 
explain the infrequency of the occurrence in the human subject, 
as compared with the lower animals. In the mare the connec- 
tion of the after-birth with the womb takes x>lace over the entire 
surface of the latter. The points of intimate attachment, there- 
fore, in successive pregnancies, are the same. In the cow and 



GENEKAIi PEINCIPLES OF BKEEDING. 57 

ewe the womb is studded with button-like processes, to the num- 
ber of fifty or sixty, containing the uterine gland, and forming 
the points of attachment for the foetal membranes in all preg- 
nancies alike. In the sow the foetal membranes of each pig are 
attached to the whole adjacent uterine mucous membrane, as in 
the mare. Lastly, in the bitch each foetal membrane has a 
broad, circular, villous belt embracing almost its entire surface, 
and connecting it to the mucous membrane of the womb. In all 
of these animals the foetal membranes are connected with the 
same parts of the uterus in each successive pregnancy, so that the 
ingrafting or inoculation between membranes and womb, and 
between womb and membranes and foetus, can not fail to take 
place. It must be borne in mind that these membranes are out- 
growths from the ovum or embryo, and thus, through the male 
and female generative elements, partake of the nature of both 
sire and dam. In other words, like the young animal, the pro- 
duct of conceptions of which they are a dependency, the mem- 
branes have been produced by the union of the male and female 
elements ; and where they lie in direct contact with the womb, 
separated only by a thin layer of cells in part produced by the 
womb and in part by the membrane, an inoculating, engrafting 
or modifying action is effected by the one on the other. In 
woman the arrangement of the foetal membranes is altogether 
different. Their intimate connection with the walls of the womb 
is confined to one circumscribed portion of the surface of each ; 
and as the point of attachment can hardly fail to be different in 
successive pregnancies, the chances of a former child influencing 
the characters of the next are correspondingly reduced. Yet it 
is evident that this may occur, and, as a matter of fact, we find 
cases in which the bearing of a mulatto by a white woman has 
affected the appearance of some of her later children by a white 
man. But such a result is very exceptional in the human family, 
and this is precisely what is to be expected if our explanation of 
its cause is the right one. 

It has been objected that a similar phenomenon has been ob- 
served in pigeons, and that in them this law of cell-inoculation 
could not take place. But this is, manifestly, a mistake. The 
eggs of birds are impregnated even as high up as the ovary. 
Says Owen: ''In coitii spermatozoa enter the cloaca and pene- 
trate the oviduct, ascending to the ovarium." The impregnated 
5 



58 A TKEATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

egg goes on enlarging by subdivision of its cells in the ovary 
and upper end of the oviduct, and, being as yet destitute of shell, 
its cellular structure is in direct contact with the maternal tissues. 
There is, therefore, a similar opportunity for cell-inoculation as 
in the mammal, although more limited in duration. 

But our manner of viewing this subject is still further sup- 
ported by a series of phenomena observed in hybridized flowers. 
Darwin quotes instances from Wiegmann, Gartner, Berkley, and 
others, to show that where the flowers of the white pea had been 
fertilized by pollen of the blue pea the resulting pods contained 
a mixture of blue and white peas. And this coloration was not 
confined to the cotyledons of the seed (the true embryo), but ex- 
tended to the skin as well. More remarkable still: Mr. Laxton, 
of Stamford, "fertilized the tall sugar pea, which bears very 
thin, green pods, becoming purplish-brown when dry, with pollen 
of the purple-podded pea, which, as its name expresses, has dark, 
purple pods with thick skin, becoming pale, reddish-purple when 
dry." 

Mr. Laxton has "cultivated the tall sugar pea during twenty 
years, and has never seen nor heard of it producing a purple pod; 
nevertheless, a flower fertilized by pollen from the purple pod 
yielded a pod clouded with purplish red, which Mr. Laxton kindly 
gave to me. A space of about two inches in length, near the 
extremity of the pod, and a smaller space near the stalk were thus 
colored. On comparing the color with that of the purple pod, 
both pods having been first dried and then soaked in water, it 
was found to be identically the same; and in both the color was 
confined to the skin lying immediately beneath the outer skin of 
the pod." 

Some of the peas were also clouded with purple, whereas the 
tall sugar pea is a pale, greenish brown — never purple. Darwin 
collects a number of other instances in which the fruit or seed 
capsule was affected by fertilization with strange pollen, in the 
case of stocks, palms, oranges, lemons, cucumbers, maize, daffo- 
dills, rhododendrons, cress and apples. Perhaps the latter fur- 
nish the most important examples. "The fruit here consists of 
the lower part of the calyx, and of the upper part of the flower- 
peduncle in a metamorphosed condition, so that the effort of the 
foreign pollen has extended even beyond the limits of the ova- 
rium. Cases of ajjples thus affected were recorded by Bradley in 



GENEKAIi PEINCIPLES OF BEEEDING. 59 

the early part of the last century; and other cases are given in old 
volumes of the 'Philosophical Transactions.' In one of these a 
russeting apple and an adjoining kind mutually affected each 
others' fruits; and in another case, a smooth apple affected a 
rough-coated kind. Another instance has been given of two very 
different apple trees growing close to each other, which bore fruit 
resembling each other, but only on the adjoining branches. It is, 
however, almost superfluous to adduce these or other cases after 
that of the St. Valery apple, which, from the abortion of the 
stamens, does not produce pollen, but, being annually fertilized 
by the girls of the neighborhood, with pollen of many kinds, 
bears fruit differing from each other in size, flavor and color, but 
resembling in character the hermaphrodite kinds by which they 
have been fertilized." 

Mr. Darwin evidently sees that his system would demand that 
the gemmules from the strange pollen should serve to fertilize or 
modify other and distant flowers and buds then being formed on 
the same tree, for he remarks: "There is not the least reason to 
believe that a branch which has borne seed or fruit directly modi- 
fied by foreign pollen is itself affected so as subsequently to pro- 
duce modified buds; such an occurrence, from the temporary 
connection of the flower with the stem, would be hardly possible." 

Yet, if the gemmules were given off by the pollen it would be 
quite reasonable to expect such to be carried on with the descend- 
ing sap, and to modify the buds then in process of formation, as 
they are represented to do the ovules in the female ovary. But, 
as in the case of the blood, so in that of the vegetable sap— we 
have no evidence that it contains particles possessed of plastic 
powers equal to the development of tissue. This is effected only 
by the nuclei or cells present in the substance of the tissues them- 
selves; and as these nuclei communicate or are continuous with 
each other through minute branching processes, they easily affect 
those immediately adjacent, but have comparatively no influence 
upon those that are somewhat remote. The modification, there- 
fore, of the fruit capsule, pod, fleshy drupe and fruit stalk sur- 
rounding the seed, is only what is to be expected from the contact 
of the male pollen with the cells of the female flower, and of 
these in their turn with those adjacent, while all other parts of 
the plant are entirely unaffected by the act. In the animal the 
process is identical in every respect; the continuous cells — mater- 



60 A TKEATISE ON HORSE-BKEEDING. 

nal and foetal — rendered continuous or placed in direct opposition 
with each other through their minute branching processes mu- 
tually influence the vital processes and formative powers of each 
other, and thus it comes that the nuclei of the womb, but one step 
removed from its contained embrj^o, acquire certain new char- 
acters from it, and in due time transmit these to later progeny. 
The efficiency of this new inoculating process will, of course, be 
greatest where the vascular connection is the most intimate; and, 
as we have seen, the effect on the progeny is most patent when 
these points of intimate vascular connection between mother and 
offspring are the same in successive pregnancies. 

A correct view of this subject is of more practical importance 
than may at first sight appear, for, although the animal modified 
by the influence of the sire of an elder half-brother is necessarily 
a cross, whatever the mode of exerting such influence, an impor- 
tant question may arise regarding the purity of other offspring 
that bear no evidence of having been subjected to such modify- 
ing cause. If Mr. Darwin's theory is correct, that the whole 
blood of the mother is charged with gemmules from the embryo, 
which gemmules pass into all future ova, then all future offspring 
are essentially crosses, as will appear in their progeny, even if 
they themselves show no sign of modification. But, on the other 
hand, if the result is only due to the mutual influence of adjacent 
cells in the womb and foetal membranes, as vegetable as well as 
animal physiology seem to imply, then the general system of the 
dam is unaffected, and her progeny, which have personally 
escaped such influence and show none of the modified characters, 
may be held to be of pure lineage, and may be bred from without 
fear of degraded offspring. 

While there are many instances in history which go to 
confirm this theory, as presented by Prof. Law, yet I am 
inclined to the opinion, from long years of close observa- 
tion, that the cases where the first impregnation of mam- 
mals affects the subsequent progeny are so rare as to make 
it practically of but little account in the calculation of the 
breeder. Indeed the cases where such resemblances are 
noticed in horses, cattle, sheep and swine are so few and 
obscure as to lead me rather to the conclusion that they are 



GENEKAIi PBINOIPLES OF BBEEDING. 61 

accidental, or owing to an inherited similarity in the remote 
ancestry, rather than to some occult influence exercised by 
a first impregnation. The case of Lord Moreton's mare and 
the quagga foal has been pressed into service by every man 
who has written upon this subject within the last half cen- 
tury, and yet it proves nothing. The black stripe is a dis- 
tinguishing mark that belonged to the feral dun horses in 
general, and which to this day occasionally crops out in all 
breeds of horses. And if the influence were as potent as 
some writers have claimed, especially when apphed to the 
breeding of horses, it is time some more modern case might 
be cited. Himdreds upon hundreds of excellent mares, 
many of them thoroughbreds, in Kentucky and Tennessee, 
have produced their first foals to a jack and have afterwards 
produced beautiful offspring from highly-bred sires. I can 
recall many illustrations upon this point that have come 
under my own observation. In fact the whole theory of 
gestation, the manner in which the foetus is attached to and 
nourished by the womb of the female, seems to make the 
commingHng of the blood of the latter with that of the 
former an impossibility. In the case of the bitch there is a 
marked difference from all other domestic animals in the 
manner in which the placenta is attached to the womb— as 
is very clearly shown by Prof. Law in the foregoing article — 
and here alone, among domestic animals, do we find any 
considerable number of results which tend to confirm the 
theory that a first impregnation affects subsequent ones. 
It is noticed so frequently, however, here, that dog fanciers 
almost universally recognize it as a rule, and exercise the 
greatest possible care lest a bitch should first be Hned by a 
mongrel or a dog of some other breed. But aside from this 
single exception I do not think the cases are sufficiently 
well authenticated or sufficiently numerous to justify the 



62 A TBEATISE ON HOESE-BBEEDING. 

practical breeder in paying any especial attention to it, 
especially when to do so would require a departure from 
plans that would otherwise be followed. 

EFFECT OF IMAGINATION UPON THE COLOE OF PKOGENY. 

The question has frequently been asked, Does a sudden 
fright, or any peculiarities of association in a pregnant ani- 
mal, have any effect upon the color or markings of the pro- 
geny? and the answer given has sometimes been "yes," and 
sometimes "no." In fact hotli sides of the question have 
been stoutly maintained by intelligent gentlemen, who have 
claimed to speak from extensive personal observation and 
experience. Ever since the days when Moses wrote the 
account of the method employed by Jacob to over-reach his 
father-in-law in the division of his cattle (see Genesis, 
chap. XXX), there have been those who believed it possible, 
through a strong mental impression, to affect the color and 
otherv/ise mark the off sirring; and ever since the day when I, 
then in my early boyhood, first read the account of Jacob's 
success in breeding cattle that were "ring-streaked, speckled 
and spotted," I have been on the lookout for evidence bear- 
ing upon the old patriarch's theory. 

The result of these observations has been to confirm me 
in the belief that, while color, as well as all other peculiari- 
ties, usually follows the ordinary laws of heredity, it is 
nevertheless true that strong mental impressions do some- 
times set aside the ordinary laws of Nature and produce 
surprising results. One very clearly-defined case came 
under my observation when a lad on my father's farm. A 
flock of sheep had been bred on this farm, without any 
infusion of fresh blood, for many years. Not a black sheep, 
nor one with a black spot or mottled face, had ever been 
known among them. On one occasion, after most of the 



GENEKAIi PEINCIPIiES OF BKEEDING. 63 

ewes had been bred, a black ram was turned into a small 
lot with them. Had a strange dog, a wolf, or any other 
wild animal, been suddenly let down among them they 
could not have been more terribly frightened. They circled 
round and round the lot, and made the most frantic efforts 
to escape from the supposed monster, while he kept turning 
round and round in the center of the circle, in vain trying 
to approach the ewes, that seemed almost ready to die with 
fright. This was kept up until from sheer exhaustion the 
ewes began to slacken their pace; but it was a long time 
before the flock became reconciled to the presence of the 
stranger. Now what was the result? Every eice that tvas 
X)regnant at the time of this fright dropped offspring more 
or less marked ivith black, while some of those that were 
served by this ram a few weeks later, after they had become 
accustomed to his presence, dropped lambs that were pure 
white. The case attracted much attention in the neighbor- 
hood at the time, and has often been referred to since as a 
convincing illustration of the effects of color-marking from 
severe fright. 

Other instances have come under my observation; none 
of them so convincing as the one above narrated, but shoAv- 
ing unmistakably the effect of imagination or association. 
I once knew a grey mare that was bred to a grey Percheron 
horse for four years in succession, and produced four foals. 
During her fii'st impregnation she had for a stable com- 
panion and working-mate a bay mare, and the foal was a 
bay. The next year her mate was a chestnut and the foal 
was a chestnut. Afterwards she was worked and kept with 
several different animals, of various colors, and her foals 
were all greys, like herself and the sire. 

These cases, with many others of a similar character, 
that have come under my own observation, as well as hun- 



64 A TKEATISE ON HOESE-BBEEDING. 

dreds that have been noted by others and reported to me, 
have, as before stated, confirmed me in the behef that 
"markings" do sometimes occur from strong mental impres- 
sions; but the precise conditions under which this phenome- 
non takes places are unknown. The effect is so uncertain 
that, practically, it may be entirely ignored by the breeder 
with impunity, until some modern Jacob shall arise who 
can tell us just how and when to use the "peeled rods." 

EFFECT OF CHANGE OF CLIMATE ON THE GENEKATIVE 
ORGANS. 

It has often been remarked that a change of climate 
appears at times to have a serious effect upon the organs of 
reproduction, especially those of the male. A well-informed 
writer in an English journal not long since stated that ex- 
perience had taught him that no water-fowl will breed the 
same year that its home is changed, referring, I presume by 
the context, to a material change as to distance or climatic 
conditions. I have noticed the same result with quadru- 
peds, more especially with horses imported from France, 
England and Scotland. Several horses that, within my 
knowledge, have totally or partially failed to get foals for a 
year or two after importation, have, after becoming thor- 
oughly acclimated, proved themselves very sure foal getters. 
I have also had many cases of a similar nature reported to 
me concerning bulls of the various breeds, and a still 
greater number, perhaps, of rams and boars. 

It is quite reasonable to suppose that a material change 
in climate, or even in the mode of feeding, may so derange 
the organs of reproduction as to cause partial or total loss 
of sexual power. We know that a change in climate, or 
even in food or water, often completely upsets a race-horse; 
and that they are never considered fit to do themselves 



GENEEAIi PKINCIPLES OP BKEEDING. 65 

credit upon the turf when taken from this country to En- 
gland, and vice versa, short of a year's acclimatization. It 
is not strange, therefore, that the effect should be equally 
as marked upon the generative organs as upon the motor 
apparatus, and upon cattle, sheep and swine as upon horses. 
And breeders should not be in too great haste to declare an 
animal a non-breeder under such circumstances. Ample 
time should be given for thorough acclimatization in aU 
cases of this nature. 

CONTEOLLIXG THE SEX. 

It has been said that there is nothing new under the 
sun, and that each succeeding generation spends most of its 
time in shoveMng over the same earth that has been exam- 
ined in vain by its predecessors in search of hidden treas- 
ures. Theories that have been advanced, investigated and 
abandoned, come up again year after year to be discussed, 
investigated and again cast aside as unreliable. They ap- 
pear periodically; and the lapse of a decade is sufficient to 
pass in review, through the agricultural press, the whole 
brood upon any given subject bearing upon agriculture. 
That of controlling the sex of offspring has, ever since the 
days of Aristotle, been one of the most fruitful topics of 
discussion, and the various theories that have been advanced 
appear and reappear with perennial vigor. These theories 
may be briefly summarized as follows : 

1st. A strong mental impression on the part of the parents, 
but especially of the mother, at the time of conception, will 
determine the offspring. 

2d. The concentration of the attention of the dam on her 
peculiarly feminine qualities, at the time of sexual union, will 
secure female progeny. 

3d. If the amorous desires of the male are stronger than 
those of the female the progeny will be a female, and vice versa. 



66 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BKEEDING. 

4th. The development of the foetus in the right side (horn) of 
the womb will secure a male, and in the left side a female. 

5th. The point of origin of the artery of the testicle from the 
main abdominal trunk (aorta) will determine the sex of the 
majority of the offspring, the male sex predominating in propor- 
tion as the origin is more anterior. 

6th. The male germ is supplied by the right testicle or ovary, 
and the female by the left. 

7th. The excitation of one side or the other of the system of 
the male at the time of coition will determine the sex of the 
young. 

8th. The persistent selection for breeding purposes of females 
which yield one sex mainly, and of males from females of the 
same kind, will finally secure a race producing a great excess of 
the sex in question. 

9th. In uniparous animals every successive ovum that reaches 
maturation is of the opposite sex from that which immediately 
preceded it. Hence, by serving on the second occurrence of heat 
we may secure the same sex as in the last foetus. 

10th. The stage of development attained by the ovum at the 
period of impregnation determines the sex of the product of 
fecundation, the less developed proving females, the more 
mature males. 

11th. The personal preponderance in strength and vigor of the 
one parent will determine an excess of its own sex in the progeny. 

12th. The nature of the food of the parents, and particularly 
of the mother before conception, will influence the production of 
the different sexes. 

Several other theories have been advanced, but the fore- 
going includes the principal ones. It may be that several 
of these causes have some influence in determining the sex, 
but it is quite certain that some of them, notably the 4th, 
6th and 7th, can have no influence whatever, and that none 
of them can be depended upon. Nature has wisely pro- 
vided, in order to preserve an equilibrium in the sexes, that 
their determination should be placed beyond the control of 
any single cause. It is known that some males get a large 
preponderance of one sex or the other, and some females 



GENEEAL PEINCIPLBS OF BKEEDING. 67 

will produce one sex only; sometimes for a series of years 
the observation of one man will tend to confirm a certain 
theory of sex production, while in other hands the same 
theory will utterly fail. It may be that we shall ultimately 
discover the circumstances under which these various 
causes operate upon each other, so that we shall be able, in 
many cases, to produce a given sex at will, but at present 
we know but little if any more upon the subject than was 
known to our grandfathers. 

The theory that just now appears to be more generally 
beheved in than any other, is the 9th in the foregoing list. 
This is based on the belief that, naturally, animals which 
usually bring forth but one at a birth will produce the 
sexes alternately — that if the first ovum produces a male, 
the next ovum, if impregnated, will produce a female; con- 
sequently, if a cow or mare, after having produced a female, 
is impregnated at the first period of heat thereafter, the 
produce will be a male. If female produce only is desired, 
one period of heat should elapse after the birth of a female 
before the dam is again served by the male. This is what 
has been known as the Stuyi^esant theory, and many cattle- 
breeders of my acquaintance firmly believe that it can be 
relied upon in a majority of cases. 



68 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE BREEDS OF HORSES. 

THOKOUGHBBEDS. 

In undertaking to write upon the breeds of horses we 
very naturally commence mth the thoroughbred, because 
that is the oldest and best established of the breeds of 
Europe and America. The term thoroughbred, often used 
in America, but seldom in England, as a synonym for well- 
bred or purely-bred, was originally used exclusively as the 
name by which the English race-horse was designated. The 
same horses are sometimes denominated "blood horses," 
from the well-established purity of their lineage. 

The thoroughbred horse is peculiarly a British produc- 
tion. At a very early period the attention of the rulers of 
Great Britain was earnestly directed to the work of improv- 
ing the breeds of horses of that kingdom. These horses 
were notoriously deficient in size, and the earliest efforts 
were directed towards improvement in that particular by the 
importation of heavy horses from Normandy, Flanders and 
Germany. It would be interesting to trace, step by step, 
these efforts, but our space will not admit of such detail. 
The era of improvement commenced with the conquest of 
the islands by the Saxons ; but it was many years before 
there appears to have been any clearly-defined or well- 
settled purpose, the object at one time appearing to be an 
increase of size by large importations of the heavy horses 



THE BREEDS OF HOESES. 69 

of Flanders, and again, to give gracefulness of motion and 
beauty of form, by the introduction of what is known as 
Oriental blood — that of the Arab, the Turk and the Barb. 
It is evident that from a very early period the blood of the 
Barb and of the Turk was held in higher esteem than that 
of the Arab, the latter being regarded as undersized, and to 
be esteemed rather for beauty of form and graceful action 
than on account of any real superiority. 

For several years preceding the reign of Charles II, 
horse-racing appears to have been rapidly growing into 
favor as an amusement and recreation among the EngHsh 
people; and from that time until the present, contests for 
supremacy upon the turf have stirred the British heart 
as no other amusement has ever done. To the constant 
growth and great popularity of this sport, which for nearly 
two hundred years has been regarded as the national amuse- 
ment of that country, are we indebted for persistence in 
a course of breeding which has given us this race of horses 
so pre-eminently distinguished throughout the world for 
speed and endurance upon the race-course; and which, on 
account of the great care taken in their breeding, and their 
consequent purity of Hneage, Avere the first race of animals 
to which the term thoroughbred was applied. 

The foundation upon which this now weU-estabhshed 
breed was built was a promiscuous minghng of the native 
horses of the Island of Great Britain — first with the larger 
races of Europe, especially of Normandy, Flanders and 
Germany, and subsequently with the Hghter, more agile 
and graceful horses of Spain, which were themselves almost 
identical with the Barbs on the other side of the Mediter- 
ranean. Frequent importations were also made direct from 
Egypt, Morocco and Tunis, and Hkewise from Arabia and 
various parts of Turkey, until this Oriental blood, to a con- 



70 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

siderable extent, permeated all the horse stock of Great 
Britain, excepting- those bred especially for agricultural 
purposes. So thoroughly had the passion for turf sports, 
or horse-racing, taken possession of the English people as 
early as the reign of Charles II, that ability to run and win 
in a race was even then regarded as the principal test of 
merit in horses, and those most successful on the turf were 
most highly prized for breeding purposes. From that time 
down to the present, embracing a period of more than two 
hundred years, the selection of breeding stock has been 
constantly made with this as the primary object. 

With the advent of Charles II, in the last half of the 
seventeenth century, breeding for speed and endurance 
upon the race-course began to be conducted on something 
like a definite plan; the records of turf performances were 
carefully kept, especial attention was paid to the pedigrees 
of horses designed for the turf; and an aristocracy of blood 
came to be recognized in the horses of England. This 
monarch sent his ''master of the horse" to the Levant for 
the purpose of procuring horses for breeding purposes, 
with which he proposed to found a breeding stud. His 
purchase comprised three very famous Turkish stallions 
and some mares that, in the equine literature of the day, 
were called the "royal mares," and these royal mares are by 
many supposed to be the foundation of the strict thor- 
oughbred. This origin is, however, more mythical than 
real, as it is well known that several other mares were, from 
time to time, introduced from the Orient, and that the pro- 
duce of many mares, not descended from nor related to 
these royal mares, have been distinguished upon the turf 
and recognized as thoroughbreds. 

About the middle of the eighteenth century, one hundred 
and thirty-five years ago, the publication of the English 



THE BEEEDS OF HOESES. 



71 



Racing Calendar was commenced. In this the names of all 
the horses that participated in the regular races were pub- 
lished, and in a very few years it became the custom to give 
also the name of the sire in each case. This pubHcation 
has been continued, with very little change in form or 
matter, do^vTi to the present day, and the records of per- 
formances and names of performers therein contained 
furnished the basis for the stud book. A collection embrac- 
ing all the pedigrees of distinguished horses that could be 
obtained was published as early as 1786. Subsequent to 
this several attempts at a compilation of pedigrees from the 
Racing Calendar and other sources was made, but it was not 
until 1791 that the English Stud Book took its present 
form. 

The standard of admission to the first volume of the 
Stud Book appears to have been simply creditable perform- 
ance upon the turf, as shown by the Racing Calendar, it 
being taken for granted that no horse could be a creditable 
performer that was not well bred — an assumption that has 
never yet been found at fault. The first volume compiled 
upon this basis has furnished the foundation for all sub- 
sequent ones, and few names have been admitted to registry 
that do not trace, without admixture, on both sides, to an 
ancestry that is recorded in the first volume, or to sub- 
sequent importations of Oriental blood. 

Prof. Low, in his great work upon the " Domesticated 
Animals of Great Britain," in commenting upon the various 
importations of foreign blood that went to make up the 
foundation for the English blood horse, says : 

The lighter horses for speed, introduced previous to the reign 
of James I, were Spaniards, Barbs and Turks. But King James, 
on his accession to the English crown, resolved to try the Arabian, 
with which his reading had probably rendered him familiar. He 



72 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

purchased a horse of that race, imported fi'om the east by an 
English merchant, Mr. Markham, for which he paid the sum, 
great in those daj'S, of £500. This horse, however, in no way 
distinguished on the turf or for his stock, attracted little atten- 
tion. The Duke of Newcastle, who afterward wrote a remarkable 
work on horses, took an especial dislike to this Arabian, abused 
him as a bony creature, good for nothing, because being trained 
to the course he could not run. This opinion seems to have exer- 
cised a great influence on the breeders for the turf, and it was 
not until after the lapse of more than a hundred years that the 
neglected Arabian was again resorted to. During this long 
period Barbs and Turks from the Levant were the horses chiefly 
imported and mingled in blood with the pre-existing race. 

Of the foreign horses early introduced into England, one 
familiarly known as the White Turk was the property of Mr. 
Place, the stud groom of the Lord Protector Cromwell. Another 
was brought by the Duke of Berwick from the siege of Budy in 
the reign of Jarnes II; and a third, the Byerly Turk, became the 
most distinguished of all the foreign horses of that period. He 
was the charger of Capt. Byerly in the wars of William in Ire- 
land about the year 1689. Of the lineal descendants of this 
horse one was King Herod, born in 1758, bred by his royal high- 
ness William, Duke of Cumberland, brother of George II. This 
fine horse, on retiring from the turf, was employed as a stallion, 
and got 497 winners at our various race-courses, computed to 
have gained to their owners £201,505. 

In the latter years of Queen Anne an Arabian had been brought 
to England which tended to impress a new character on the En- 
glish turf. This animal, the progenitor of some of the finest 
horses that have perhaps existed in the world, was purchased at 
Aleppo by a merchant, the brother of Mr. Darley of Yorkshire. 
He was supposed to have been of the Desert breed, although his 
precise lineage was not determined. He got the Devonshire or 
Flying Childers and another horse termed Bartlett's Childers, 
who was never trained, but who was the ancestor of Eclipse, one 
of the most remarkable horses of which we have any record. 

The Devonshire, or Flying Childers, born in 1715, was so named 
from his breeder, Mr. Leonard Childers, of Carr House, near Don- 
caster, from whom he was purchased when young by the Duke 
of Devonshire. He was a chestnut horse, with four white legs. 



THE BKEEDS OF HOKSES. 73 

He was of noble form, of matchless courage, and the fleetest 
horse that had ever been upon the English turf. 

Eclipse was got by Marske, a grandson of Bartlett's Childers, 
out of Spiletta. He was foaled in the year 1764, during the eclipse 
of that year, from which circumstance he took his name. He 
was bred by the Duke of Cumberland, and, on the death of that 
prince, sold to Mr. Wildman, a salesman at Smithfield; and after- 
wards he became the property of Mr. O'Kelly. Eclipse had not 
the grandeur of form of the Flying Childers, and might have 
escaped notice but for the accidental trial of his stupendous 
powers. He was about fifteen hands and one inch high. His 
shoulders were very low, oblique, and so tliick above that, accord- 
ing to the observation of the time, a firkin of butter might have 
rested upon them. He stood very high behind, a conformation 
suited to his great power of progression. He was so thick-winded 
as to be heard blowing at a considerable distance. In the lan- 
guage of honest John Lawrence: "He puffed and blowed like an 
otter, and galloped as wide as a barn-door." No sooner were his 
powers exhibited on the turf than every eye was set to scrutinize 
his form, and he was then admitted to possess in perfection the 
external characters indicative of great speed. A volume was 
written on his proportions by M. Saintbel, a veterinary surgeon, 
whose investigatioQS showed that his figure differed greatly from 
the conventional form which speculative writers had assigned as 
the standard of perfection. He was of an indomitable temper, 
and his jockeys found it in vain to attempt to hold him, but con- 
tented themselves with remaining still on the saddle while he 
swept along, his nose almost touching the ground. His full speed 
was not determined, since he never met with an opponent suffi- 
ciently fleet to put it to the proof. He not only was never beaten, 
but he was able to distance some of the best horses of his time; 
and the fleetest could not keep by his side for fifty yards together. 

This remarkable horse first appeared on the turf at the age of 
five, in 1769. In the first heat he set off of his own accord, and 
easily gained the race, his rider pulling him in vain with all his 
force for the last mile. O'Kelly, observing this and being aware 
of his horse's powers, offered in the second heat to "place the 
horses," and he took lieavy bets that he did so. When called upon 
to declare he said: "Eclipse first, the rest no place." He gained 
his wagers. Eclipse was first, and all the others were distanced, 



74 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BEEBDING. 

or, in the language of the turf, had no place. From this time 
Eclipse was continually on the turf, and gained every race. No 
horse daring to contend with him he closed his career of seven- 
teen months by walking over the Newmarket Course for the 
King's Plate, in October, 1770. During this brief period it is 
said that he gained £25,000 for his owner. He was then employed 
with prodigious profit as a stallion. He got 3S4 winners at our 
numerous race courses, who are computed to have gained about 
£160,000 to their owners, besides cups and plates. He died in 
1789 at the age of twenty-five. 

Another horse of foreign lineage, scarcely inferior to the 
Darley Arabian in the fame and value of his descendants, and by 
many supposed to have exercised a yet more important influence 
on the horses of the turf, is the Godolphin Barb, who lived a 
short time later than the Darley Arabian, having been born about 
the year 1724. This splendid horse was long regarded as an 
Arabian, although his characters approached to those of the 
Barb. He was found dragging a water cart in France, and was 
probably one of those neglected presents of horses, frequent at 
that time, from the Barbary powers to the French court. He was 
brought to England and finally presented to Lord Godolphin, in 
whose stud he remained a considerable time before his value was 
suspected, and then only it was discovered in consequence of the 
excellence of one of his sons, Laih, out of Roxana, who proved to 
be the fleetest horse, Childers excepted, that had till then appeared 
on the English turf. His grandson, Matchem, was in a peculiar 
degree noted for the excellence of his stock. This latter horse is 
supposed to have yielded his owner, Mr. Fenwick, upwards of 
£17,000 as a stallion alone. He died in 1781, having had 354 sons 
and daughters, all winners at our numerous race-courses, and 
computed to have gained to their owners £151,097. 

It is the general opinion of the best-informed English 
turfmen, that the Oriental stallions which contributed most 
largely to the formation of the English thoroughbred were 
Place's White Turk, the Byerly Turk, Lister's, or the Strad- 
dling Turk, the Darley Arabian, Curwen's Barb, Lord Car- 
lisle's Turk, the Godolphin Arabian (a Barb), the Leeds 
Arabian, Honeywood's White Arabian, Combe's Grey Ara- 



THE BEEEDS OF HOKSES. 75 

bian, Bell's Grey Arabian, D'Arcy's Turk, Selaby Turk, the 
Ancaster Turk, Compton's Barb, the Toulouse Barb, Stan- 
yan's Arabian, Lowther Barb, Taffolet Barb, Hutton's Grey 
Barb, Honeywood's Arab, Sedley Barb, and Wellesley's 
Arabian. Of those above mentioned. Lister's Turk got 
Brisk and Snake; Darley Arabian got Flying Childers; Car- 
lisle's Turk got the Bald Galloway, and Godolphin Arabian 
got Blank, Eegulus and Cade. The "Koyal Mares" were 
imported Barbs. 

Of these Oriental sires it is generally admitted that the 
Godolphin Arabian — imported one hundred and sixty-two 
years ago — is the last that has proven of any benefit to the 
English stock ; and while this blending of the blood of the 
Orient with the old races of England furnished the founda- 
tion, there can not be the slightest doubt that the care and 
skill of English breeders in selecting and coupling with the 
stoutest, best and fleetest for successive generations has 
been a more potent agent in the formation of the breed, as 
it now exists, than the Arabian and Barb blood, to which 
tradition has ascribed its superiority. Many importations 
of the choicest blood of the Orient have been made both to 
this country and England within the last half century, and 
yet scarcely a name among them can be found in the pedi- 
gree of a horse that has distinguished himself upon the turf. 
The Arabian horses possess undoubted beauty of form and 
grace of motion, but they are notoriously inferior in point 
of size to the average thoroughbred, being rarely over 14 
hands high ; and their produce from the best of mares have 
been failures both in the stud and on the race course. In 
every instance in which the speed and stoutness of our 
thoroughbreds have been tested side by side with the Ara- 
bian they have proven superior to their eastern competitors. 
Hence, recent crosses of Oriental blood, while they do not 



76 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BEBEDING. 

warrant exclusion from the stud book, are not looked upon 
with favor by the best breeders of England or America. 
The thoroughbred of today is greatly superior to his Ori- 
ental ancestor in size, speed, endurance, and every other 
useful quality, excepting, possibly, that of docility. So 
thoroughly have our people been imbued with the idea that 
Arabia was the fountain-head from which all modern equine 
excellence has been drawn that to venture an opinion to the 
contrary has been equivalent, in the mind of the average 
horse essayist, to writing one's self down as an ignoramus 
upon equine history. And yet it is doubtful if ever a race 
of horses has been more thoroughly overrated. 

The greater portion of Arabia is, in point of fact, illy 
adapted to the rearing of horses, and prior to the days of 
Mahomet horses were scarcely recognized as a part of the 
possessions of the Arab, their riches consisting chiefly in 
camels, oxen, sheep and goats. But Mahomet was an en- 
thusiastic lover of the horse, and while he succeeded in en- 
grafting upon so large a proportion of the inhabitants of 
the eastern world his own peculiar religious tenets he also 
imbued his followers with a great degree of his enthusi- 
astic admiration for the horse. Indeed, kindness to and 
love for this noble animal was made a part of the lehgious 
duty of all true Mussulmans, and from the days of Mahomet 
down to the present time the Arabian has held his stud, 
and especially his mares, in a sort of superstitious reverence. 
Mahomet selected for himself a magnificent stud, and his 
followers to this day seek to trace the genealogy of their 
choicest horses to the mares that were his favorites. But 
their pedigrees, divested of all the high-sounding flourishes 
with which they are accompanied, mean but little and are 
altogether unreliable. 

The following is a copy of one of these documents, which 



THE BKEEDS OF HOESES. 77 

accompanied Hamdan, a grey stallion imported by A. Keene 
Eichards, in 1856, as we find it recorded in Brace's Ameri- 
can Stnd Book: 

Ramadan 21, 1272. 
This is to certify that, at the date of this document, Messrs. 
Keene and Troye bought from Sheik Hammed-Es-Sohiman, the 
son of Shalan, the grey horse, even the horse of Hammed, the 
son of Sohiman, who is the son of Shalan, even the sheik of the 
Arabs of Anayza. The said horse is Koheylan, the son of the 
old Koheylan father, and of an old Koheylan mother. We 
declare this by fortune, to which God and Mahomed, the apostle 
of God, are witnesses. There is no better horse, being from the 
side of both father and mother a blood horse. He is a Koheylan, 
the son of a Koheylan, and his mother is a Koheylan purer than 
milk. He was born and brought up in the land of Nesjd. 

This is the genealogy of the said horse. God is omnipotent. 
The sale was made at the land of Sophira. 

[seal.] Hammed-Es-Sohiman, the son of Shalan. 
Witnesses : 

The writer of this document, who stands in need of God. 

Akd-Allah, the son of Noivphal, the lecturer. 
Mahammad, the son of Mashial. 
Akhbief, the son of Mashaul. 
Ish-She-Ra-Tah, agent of Fysal-Ish-Shalaa. 

As before remarked, Arabia was one of the latest of the 
Oriental countries to engage in rearing horses; and there 
can be no question but that the enthusiasm of the followers 
of the Prophet had as much to do in creating the great rep- 
utation that the Arabian horses soon thereafter attained, 
and which they hold to this day, as the quahty of the ani- 
mals themselves. 

The thoroughbred having been for so many generations 
bred with especial reference to his capacity as a 7'ace-horse, 
it is not surprising that he should have acquired pecuhari- 
ties of form and temper that render him undesirable for the 
more sober and steady uses of every-day life. He has been 



78 A TBEATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

bred to run, and the form best adapted to speed, and the 
mental qualities that most certainly insure the pluck, and 
energy, and determination so essential to success in a hard- 
fought race, have been the qualities aimed at by breeders 
and the standard by which selections have been made. 
Such a course of breeding has made the thoroughbred, as a 
racer, rather too lithe and light in form, and too nervous 
and excitable in temper for ordinary business uses; but in 
speed, endurance and resolution they surpass all other 
breeds, and there is scarcely a race of horses in existence 
but may be improved by a cross with them. This fact 
is almost universally recognized, and nearly all countries 
upon the civihzed globe have for many years regarded the 
Enghsh thoroughbred, or "blood horse," as the basis of all 
substantial improvement. 

Our American horses are largely permeated with the 
blood of the English thoroughbred. Many of the best 
stallions and mares of England have been imported to this 
country, and their influence is seen on every hand. It 
enters largely into the ground-work of all our trotting 
strains, and it is doubtful if a single great road horse or 
trotter has been produced in this country that did not pos- 
sess a large share of this royal blood as a foundation upon 
which the trotting superstructure has been built. 

There exists great ignorance, even among many who 
pass for intelligent, well-informed horsemen, as to what 
constitutes a thoroughbred horse. Nearly every agricult- 
ural society in the land has a class in its premium Hst for 
thoroughbred horses; and yet many of the managers of 
these societies have a very indefinite idea as to what is 
requisite to render a horse eligible in this class. Questions 
of this nature are referred to me almost every year for a 
decision as to eligibihty; and many of these are of such a 



THE BKEEDS OP HOKSES. 79 

nature that a very slight knowledge of the subject ought to 
enable the officers of these societies to decide for them- 
selves. On this account I beg pardon of the well-informed 
reader while I briefly recapitulate. 

In the first place, it should be understood that we derive 
the term, as well as the breed of horses to which it applies, 
from our British cousins across the water, as has been 
fully set forth in the preceding pages; and that the word, 
when apphed to horses, is used to designate one particular 
breed, and that is the running horse. All our American 
thoroughbreds are, therefore, imported from England, or 
are descendants of animals so imported. A recent cross 
with an imported Arab or Barb, while it does not vitiate the 
blood nor render an animal ineligible as a thoroughbred, is 
not usually regarded as desirable, from the fact that the 
course of selection which has been practiced by the breed- 
ers of thoroughbred horses in England and America, for 
the last hundred years, has given us a race that is generally 
considered to be far superior to the Oriental horse of today 
in speed, size and stoutness. The compiler of the stud book 
for thoroughbred horses in this country has relaxed the 
English rule somewhat, and admits to registry animals that 
show an unmixed descent for five generations of pure blood; 
and while, under this rule, many animals may be admitted 
that are not, in the strict sense of the word, thoroughbreds, 
yet if for five generations nothing but thoroughbred sires 
are to be found in the pedigree, the quantity of alien blood 
remaining must necessarily be infinitesimally small; and by 
usage, the animal so bred is, in this country, ranked as a 
thoroughbred. The American Stud Book for thoroughbred 
horses, four volumes of which have been issued, is edited 
and published by Col. S. D. Bruce, of the Turf, Field and 
Farm, New York. 



80 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

If our agricultural societies would bear in mind that 
none of our American trotters, no matter how long the 
pedigree, and none of our imported or native draft horses, 
are ehgible to compete for premiums ofPered for thorough- 
breds they would spare themselves much trouble. No ped- 
igree that has Eysdyk's Hambletonian, Abdallah, Morgan, 
Bellfounder, Hiatoga, Mambrino Chief, Eoyal George, 
Patchen or any other of our prominent trotting sires in it 
can belong to a thoroughbred. It may appear strange to 
some that it is necessary to make this statement; yet I 
have seen premiums awarded in the thoroughbred class 
to trotting stallions at both State and county fairs; and I 
have known some cases where imported draft horses have 
been entered in this class, and were supposed to be eligible. 

TEOTTEES AND EOADSTEES. 

We have as yet no distinctive breed of driving horses 
or roadsters. The horses used for light driving, fast trot- 
ting, etc., are largely a conglomeration of all breeds and 
types. Some approximate the French Canadian pony in 
form and action, while others possess most of the charac- 
teristics of the thoroughbred; but so popular have trotting 
races become in this country, and so universal is the fancy 
for fast driving horses, that at almost all our horse shows 
and fairs the roadster class will be found more largely 
represented than any other, and usually more largely than 
all others combined. Indeed, the roadster is more distinctly 
an American feature than any other in our equine product; 
and we are fast approaching the time when the American 
trotting horse will be classed as a distinct breed. It is the 
creation of an American fancy — the result of a fashion that 
has demanded the fastest and stoutest trotting horses in 
the world for driving on the road; and to this end we have 



THE BKEEDS OF HOESES. 81 

selected and bred until our horses surpass all others in this 
particular. Among these horses we have several recognized 
families of especial prominence, all more or less related, but 
each possessing features that are to some extent peculiarly 
its own, but none of them entitled to be separately classed 
as a breed. 

Of these we may mention the Hanibletonians, descended 
on the paternal side from imported Messenger (a thorough- 
bred) through his son Mambrino (also a thoroughbred), and 
Mambrino's son Abdallah, out of a mare of unknown blood, 
who in turn got Eysdyk's Hambletonian, out of a mare by 
Bellfounder (an imported Norfolk trotter), and her dam 
probably having two direct crosses to imported Messenger. 
Through Eysdyk's Hambletonian, on the paternal side, we 
have the Volunteers, the Edward Everetts, the Alexander's 
Abdallahs, the Almonts, the Messenger Durocs, the Senti- 
nels, the Happy Mediums, the George Wilkeses, the Dicta- 
tors, and all the various so-called Hambletonians of the 
present day. This celebrated horse was bred in Orange 
Co., N. Y., foaled in 1849, and was kept in that county until 
his death, which occurred March 26, 1876. 

Then we have the Mariibrinos, that take their name from 
Mambrino Chief, who was got by Mambrino Paymaster, a 
son of the Mambrino above referred to as the grandsire of 
Eysdyk's Hambletonian. The dam of Mambrino Chief, 
like the dam of Abdallah, was a mare of unknown blood. 
He was bred in Orange Co., N. Y., foaled in IBM, and when 
ten years old was taken to Kentucky, where he died in 1861. 
Upon the highly-bred and thoroughbred mares of that 
region he was very successful as a sire of fast trotters, and 
the mares got by him have been especially noted as pro- 
ducers of great trotters when coupled with other trotting 
strains. 



82 A TREATISE ON HOKSE-BEEEDING. 

The Clays constitute another trotting family of note. 
The original Henry Clay was a famous trotting stallion, 
foaled 1837, got by Andrew Jackson (also a famous trotter), 
who was a grandson of Bashaw (an imported Barb), and 
related to imported Messenger through the second dam of 
his sire, who was by that horse. The dam of Henry Clay 
was a great trotting mare, whose blood is unknown. From 
this horse we have the various families of Clays of the pres- 
ent day, and also the Patchens — the trotting stallion Geo. 
M. Patchen, the greatest trotting stallion of his day, and 
the original of the name, being a grandson of the original 
Henry Clay. 

The Morgans are perhaps our oldest trotting family; 
and if they have not produced our very fastest trotters, 
their produce undoubtedly deserve to take the very highest 
rank as good-tempered, hardy and pleasant roadsters. 
They are descended, in the paternal line, from a horse called 
Justin Morgan, who was bred in Vermont, foaled 1793, and 
died 1821. His blood has never been positively known, 
although it is pretty well established that the thoroughbred 
predominated. Prom him we have the Morrills, the Fear- 
naughts, the Ethan Aliens, the Black Hawks (not including 
the descendants of Long Island Black Hawk, who was by 
Andrew Jackson, grandson of Bashaw, above alluded to, 
and had none of the Morgan blood in his veins), the Daniel 
Lamberts, the Knoxes and the Golddusts. The popularity 
of this family at one time was unbounded ; and no blood, 
excepting that of the thoroughbred, has been so generally 
disseminated and so highly esteemed throughout the United 
States. At present it is not so highly prized by those who 
place speed above all other qualities ; but go where you will 
among livery-stable keepers or horse-railroad managers and 
ask them what type of horse they have found most profit- 



THE BEEEDS OF HORSES. 83 

able to use and wear out on the road, and they will almost 
invariably answer, " The old-fashioned Morgan." 

The Bashaws, another popular family of trotters, are 
very closely related to the Clays and Patchens, having a 
common ancestry in Young Bashaw, who was the sire of the 
Andrew Jackson above referred to. Young Bashaw was by 
the imported Bashaw, his dam was by a thoroughbred sire, 
and his grandam was by imported Messenger. The most 
celebrated of the Bashaw family proper come through Long 
Island Black Hawk, who was by Andrew Jackson, out of a 
mare by Mambrino, son of Messenger. Through him we 
have Green's Bashaw (so well known in the west), the 
Mohawks, and many others of note. 

The Pilots : The blood of the old black pacer Pilot, who 
was of French Canadian ancestry, has mingled kindly with 
our best trotting strains, and many of our very best and 
fastest trotters trace to him, mainly through his son Pilot 
Jr. (a horse bred by the late E. A. Alexander, of Kentucky), 
out of a mare that was nearly thoroughbred. Old Copper- 
bottom, also a Canadian pacer ; Hiatoga, a horse bred in 
Virginia ; Columbus, and Eoyal George, both from Canada, 
have all been very popular sires, and no compendium of the 
origin of the American trotting horse would be complete 
without reference to them. 

In no department of stock-breeding is the influence 
of heredity and of patient selection with a view to the 
transmission and improvement of a desired quahty more 
apparent than in the breeding of the trotting horse. Fifty 
years ago the American trotting horse, as a breed, was 
unthought of; and one that could trot a mile in less than 
three minutes was a wonderful animal ! But the ability to 
trot fast was a desirable quality, and breeders sought to 
perpetuate it. Animals that excelled the average of the 



84 A TKEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

species as trotters were selected to breed from, with a view 
to perpetuating and intensifying this quality; but as its 
possession was at that time an accident — a spontaneous 
variation — it was found that but few of the immediate 
descendants of the animals first chosen with a view to 
breeding fast trotters could trot faster than their remote 
ancestors. But when such of them as did show improve- 
ment in this direction were again selected for breeding pur- 
poses and coupled together it was found that, while there 
were still many failures, the proportion of the descendants 
that showed improvement in the trotting gait beyond the 
average of their ancestors was materially increased. And 
so by selecting from generation to generation from such 
families as have shown a tendency to improvement in this 
quahty we have made considerable progress toward found- 
ing a breed of trotting horses. 

So generally is the attention of the breeders of trotting 
horses directed to the "bright, particular stars" in the trot- 
ting firmament each year that we lose sight of the immense 
numbers of horses that trot in 2:30 to 2:50 — a gait that 
twenty-five, and even fifteen years ago, was fast enough to 
entitle a horse to rank as a creditable performer on the turf; 
and in our admiration for these great performers we have 
failed to note the extent to which the average speed of the 
so-called trotting families has been improved. What horse- 
man who has reached the age of fifty years can not remem- 
ber how very rare three-minute trotters were when he was a 
boy! And yet what a large proportion of our Hamble- 
tonians, Clays, Bashaws and Mambrinos now trot faster 
than three minutes! 

The progress made by American trotters during the 
past fifteen years, as demonstrated by the average speed 
of the animals which compete at our prominent trotting 



THE BREEDS OF HOESES. 85 

meetings, is something very often overlooked by those who 
do not give the subject particular attention. Year by year 
there have been vast accessions to the list of horses with 
records of 2:30 or better, and of course the influence of this 
constant influx of fresh speed can not but be made mani- 
fest upon the turf. Taking the records of the oldest prom- 
inent trotting track-that at Buffalo, N. Y.-as a guide, we 
find the average time of all the heats trotted there during 
the summer meetings, from 1866 to 1884, inclusive, to have 
been as follows : 



Year. Average time. 

1866 2:38H 

1867 2:341/2 

1868 2:31?4 

1869 2:29i4 

isTO 2:28M 

1871 2:253^ 

1872 2:26 

1873 2:2bi'2 



1874 



, 2:241/2 



Year. Average time. 

1876 2:23 

1877 2:24!4 

i878 ■■■.■.: ■.■.'. 2:21V4 

1879..:: 2:m 



1880. 



,2:20 



1881 2:20^i 

i882 2:21% 

1883 2:21g 

1884 '^•'^1^* 



1875::::: 2:251/2 

These figures speak volumes. From 2:38^ in 1866 to 
2:20 in 1880 and 2:20M the following year is a tremendous 
stride, and it will be seen that the reduction has been a 
steady as weU as a notable one. Of course, it is not every 
season that such flyers as Maud S. and St. Julien appear at 
the same meeting, as was the case at Buffalo in 1880, while 
the following year half a dozen of our best trotters were out 
at once, which accounts for the exceptionally low average 
for these two years ; but, taking the average of the Buffalo 
track for the first five years of its existence, we find it to be 
2:32K, while for the five years from 1880 to 1884, inclusive, 
it is reduced to 2 :21}4 ! 

While much of this increase in the average speed of our 
trotting horses should, in justice, be attributed to improve- 
ment in our vehicles and tracks, and to increased skiU in 
the trainer, yet it is undeniable that by far the greater por- 



86 A TBEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

tion of it has resulted from increased capacity in our horses, 
bred for two, three or four generations especially with refer- 
ence to this quality. It is also worthy of especial remark 
that over ninety per cent of all the horses with records of 
2 :25 or better, whose breeding can be traced even as far as 
the sire, are more or less closely related to one or more of 
our recognized trotting families. 

Hence, while chance trotters may occasionally be pro- 
duced, as of yore, through spontaneous variations, our 
breeders and trainers have found that by confining them- 
selves to the descendants of three or four well-known fami- 
lies the probabilities of producing fast trotters are infinitely 
greater than by going outside; for wdthin these families the 
trotting gait has been cultivated by selection and use until 
heredity has begun to lend its powerful aid in transmitting 
what was originally a spontaneous or accidental superi- 
ority; and the breeder who introduces a single cross in 
which the trotting gait has not become an inherent quality 
only adds to the probabilities of failure and postpones the 
day when we shall be able to breed fast trotters with cer- 
tainty. We have still much to do before we can claim to 
have established a breed of trotting horses, and the more 
closely we confine ourselves to judicious selections from the 
families that trot and produce trotters the more rapid will 
be our progress in the formation of a breed in which supe- 
riority in the trotting gait shall be an inlierent and trans- 
missible quality. 

It may possibly become necessary to resort to crosses 
outside of these trotting families for improvement in some 
other quality; but there is no out-cross that we can possi- 
bly make without danger to the transmission and improve- 
ment of the trotting gait. Even those of our trotters that 
belong to none of the recognized trotting families are al- 



THE BKEEDS OE HOESES. 87 

most invariably the result of selection with a view to this 
faculty. In almost every case of "breeding unknown" we 
have found that the dam was "a fast trotter." In short, the 
more thoroughly we investigate the course of breeding that 
has produced our trotting horses the more completely does 
it confirm the theory of breeding from animals that possess 
the quality we wish to perpetuate. 

Those who tell us that we must infuse more of the blood 
of the thoroughbred into our trotting strains, because that 
blood is the foundation of all modern excellence in the 
horse, find their counterpart in those gentlemen of the old 
school — old fogies I had almost said — who used to be con- 
tinually arguing for more of the blood of the Orient in the 
thoroughbred. The argument in each case is identical. 
The blood of the Arab and of the Barb was the foundation 
for the more modern thoroughbred. The Oriental horse 
represented the very highest type of speed and endurance; 
and from this source the thoroughbred derived aU its orig- 
inal excellence. To keep up these good qualities, and to 
improve the English race horse, these good old gentlemen 
argued that we must constantly draw from the fountain- 
head — the source of all improvement. But, by and by, the 
time came when all horsemen were compelled to admit that 
a further infusion of this material — which constituted a 
most excellent foundation — was no longer needed, because 
the thoroughbred horse of the British Isles had become im- 
mensely superior to his Oriental ancestor. English breed- 
ing, training and selecting has done the work, and the man 
who now introduces a cross of the Arab or Barb in his 
thoroughbred stud is very justly considered bhnd to his 
own interest. 

And so with breeding trotters. Granted that the endur- 
ance, and vim, and energy that makes the great trotter 



0» A TKEATISE ON HOESE-BKEEDING. 

come from the tlioronghbred ; and granted, even, that the 
form for speed at the trotting gait comes from the same 
source; we have selected, and trained, and bred mth an 
especial view to adaptation to this especial purpose, until 
we have a fixed characteristic — an inheritance of speed at 
the trotting gait, and an inheritance of mental quality, 
adapting the horse to this especial use, in which the modern 
American trotter is as much superior to the average thor- 
oughbred as is the best race horse that ever struck hoof 
upon the Epsom Downs to the average Arab of today. 

Manifestly, the principal valuable qualities that our 
trotters have derived from the thoroughbred are courage 
and endurance. No one will claim that, as a breed, the 
thoroughbreds are fast trotters ; and more, no one will claim 
that a single thoroughbred has ever excelled at that gait, 
judged by our standard of speed. The trotter is an American 
product — a creature the result of our own selection, breed- 
ing and training. What, then, can we gain by a stronger 
infusion of the blood of the thoroughbred? Certainly not 
more speed at the trotting gait, because it is not there, and 
can not come from that source! We may, and doubtless can, 
in some cases, get more courage and greater powers of endur- 
ance from this quarter, but beyond these two qualities I can 
not conceive of a single point in which the American trotter 
can be improved by a fresh infusion of racing blood. It is 
against reason, and against the experience of breeders the 
world over ; and the man who rings the changes on " high 
breeding," and the "form for speed," and the "disposition to 
go fast," and the " foundation of all equine excellence," as 
arguments in favor of breeding from thoroughbreds to pro- 
duce trotters, voluntarily shuts his eyes to the experience of 
the world in stock-breeding. The intelligent gentleman 
who breeds horses for the running turf selects his breeding- 



THE BKEEDS OF HOKSES. »y 

stock from the choicest running strains — the families that 
can show upon their escutcheon the longest roll of mighty 
performers — and by pursuing this course he steadily im- 
proves his stock ; and so the intelligent breeder of trotting 
horses will select from families in which speed at the trot- 
ting gait has become an inherent and transmissible quality. 

I can see no reason why this great principle, which forms 
the correct basis of all good stock-breeding, should not 
apply to the breeding of trotting horses as well as to setter 
dogs. The get of a bulldog out of a setter bitch would 
probably possess more coiu^age than a purely-bred setter, 
and a puppy so bred might possibly act well in the field ; 
but no man accustomed to the business would back a litter 
so bred, in a field trial, against a litter of pure setters! 
And so, if it is a trotting horse we are after, it has always 
been my advice that the breeder should get as deeply into 
the trotting lines of blood as possible. The exceptional 
cases quoted by the advocates of the thoroughbred prove 
nothing. We can not go very far as yet into any of our 
trotting strains of blood without running into a thorough- 
bred cross, or else running into obscurity. I should cer- 
tainly very greatly prefer that my trotting brood mare or 
stallion, after showing a few crosses of Hambletonian, Pilot, 
Mambrino Chief, and Clay blood, should trace to a thorough- 
bred ancestry than to the dunghill, because in the former 
case we know that we are anchored upon a solid foundation 
of courage and endurance. But we have our trotting 
structure already reared to handsome proportions upon this 
foundation ; why then should we overturn what has already 
been done and commence again to build on the same rock ? 
To do so is, in my opinion, a step in the wrong direction. 

This position is so self-evident — so perfectly in accord 
with the known laws of heredity — that I am surprised that 



90 A TKEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

it should be questioned by any man of ordinary intelli- 
gence. That mares with one or two trotting crosses on a 
thoroughbred pedigree are preferable, even for breeding 
trotters, to mongrels of no individual merit and no pedi- 
gree, no one in his sober senses will deny ; and that mares 
by Hambletonian, or Geo. Wilkes, or Mambrino Patchen, 
or Pilot Jr., or Mambrino Chief, or any other noted trotting 
sire, out of thoroughbred dams, should themselves produce 
great trotters when coupled with a well-bred trotting sire, 
as in the case of the dam of Maud S., is no surprise, and no 
argument whatever against my position, but confirms it. 
That the next remove from the blood of the race horse, if 
the remove be with choice trotting blood, ^vill produce a 
still greater proportion of fast trotters, is what I assert. 
We want good, tried and approved trotting blood upon this 
foundation ; and the more of this material we can put there, 
and the further we are pushed away from that foundation 
hy such material, the better for certainty in producing fast 
and reliable trotting horses. 

OKLOFF TKOTTEES. 

Although the Orloff trotters of Eussia have been but 
sparingly introduced into this country, yet they are so fre- 
quently referred to in discussions upon horse-breeding, and 
especially in those pertaining to the breeding of trotting 
horses, that a history of the breed and a comparison of their 
merits with our own trotters can not fail to be interesting. 
The breed takes its name from Count Alexis Orloff Tschis- 
mensky, an enthusiastic horseman of Eussia, who, in 1775, 
imported from Arabia a grey stallion named Smetanxa, said 
to have been of unusual size and strength. A Danish mare 
was bred to this imported Arabian stallion, and the produce 
was a horse kno^Ti as Polkan 1st. From a union of this 



THE BEEEDS OF HOESES. 91 

half-blood with a Dutch mare sprang a stallion known as 
Bars 1st, who is generally regarded as the progenitor of the 
Orloff race of trotters. The fame of this quarter-blood, 
Bars 1st, was chiefly perpetuated through his sons Lubeznay 
1st, Lebed 1st and Dobroy 1st. 

It is worthy of especial note that we have an almost 
exact parallel of the course of breeding which laid the 
foundation for the Orloff trotting horse in the case of the 
imported Barb, Grand Bashaw, a grey staUion, imported to 
the United States from Tripoh by Mr. Joseph C. Morgan. 
This horse got Young Bashaw (also grey), out of Pearl by 
First Consul, and he in turn got Andrew Jackson, out of a 
mare of unknown blood. It will be observed that the Kus- 
sian trotter Bars 1st and Andrew Jackson were each three 
removes from their Oriental ancestry, and that in this third 
remove the trotting excellence first began to manifest itself. 
Bars 1st laid the foundation for the Orloff trotting horse, 
and was himself a distinguished trotter ; Andrew Jackson 
was the most noted trotting stallion of his day, and from 
him are descended the Bashaw, Patchen and Clay trotters 
of the present time. We have no positive knowledge as to 
the breeding of the Danish mare, the dam of Polkan 1st, or 
of the Dutch mare that produced Bars 1st, while Pearl, the 
dam of Young Bashaw, was a well-bred mare, she being by 
a thoroughbred sire, out of Fancy by imported Messenger. 
As to the blood of the dam of Andrew Jackson we are left 
to conjecture. The similarity of the foundation of these 
two races of trotting horses is therefore quite apparent. 

Count Orloff and his successor, V. T. Shiskin, devoted 
themselves assiduously to the improvement of these horses, 
selecting their stallions exclusively from, the foundation 
above alluded to, but resorting frequently to Enghsh and 
Dutch mares of known excellence; so that the Orloff trot- 



92 A TBEATISE ON HOESE-BKEEDING. 

ter, like the American, is of a mixed origin, and neither the 
Arab, the Barb nor the EngHsh thoroughbred can claim 
exclusive paternity in either case. Selection and crossing, 
with a view to adaptation for a specific use, has accom- 
phshed the work of creating in both countries a race of trot- 
ting horses. Count OrlofP was an intelligent enthusiast in 
the business— as all successful breeders have been — and he 
persistently refused to part with any of his entire horses, 
preferring that he alone should dictate the choice of sires 
to be used to perpetuate and improve the race. After his 
death the stud was scattered; a considerable portion of it 
passed into the possession of the crown, but several private 
studs were founded, and a stud book was instituted to 
aid in the work of keeping the race free from further ad- 
mixture, although with the Kussians, as with us, the ques- 
tion is not very well settled as to what constitutes the best 
trotting pedigree, and purity of blood is a rather vague and 
indefinite term when applied to the Orloff as well as to the 
American trotter. The Count had been an enthusiastic 
patron of the race course as a means of developing and 
testing the powers of his horses, and since his time the gov- 
ernment has given its powerful aid to promote the same ob- 
ject, not only by establishing breeding studs, but by fur- 
nishing more than one-half of the prize money that is con- 
tested for at these trotting races, which have been held reg- 
ularly in that country for the last sixty years. Eussian 
trials of speed are regulated by law, and the driver or ovmer 
who violates any of the rules which have been laid down to 
secure fair contests is liable to take an unceremonious trip 
to Siberia at government expense — a punishment that, as 
might be supposed, is much more effectual in suppressing 
fraud than is that of an edict of expulsion issued by our 
National Trotting Association. 



*rHE BREEDS OF HOKSES. 93 

I had the pleasure, a few years ago, of meeting Mons. 
Jules Goujon, who has long been a resident of Moscow, and 
who is intimately connected with the turf sports of that 
country. From him I learned many interesting particulars 
concerning the Orloff horse and the methods of breeding, 
training and driving in that country. He states that 

The entries for the races are according to age qualifications, 
except that for horses past six years old— they are free for all. 
The heats are never less than three versts, and the deciding heat 
is at the same distance. In races of four and one-half versts the 
deciding heat is at three versts. Races of six and twelve versts 
are decided in one heat. The first prize is not given to the horse 
that comes in first in the race, but in the deciding heat. The 
number of horses entered in each race is unlimited, but they are 
started three at a time, and the two horses out of the entire num- 
ber of starters that trot the distance in the least time, according 
to the watch, take part in the deciding heat. If the horse win- 
ning in the first trial comes in second in the second trial then 
a third heat settles the question of supremacy. Only two moneys 
are given. There are three tracks, of oval shape, inclosed one 
within the other, one for each horse. The outer is one and a half 
versts (one mile) long; the two others are shorter, one by twelve 
sagenes (eighty-four feet) and the other by twenty-three sagenes 
(161 feet). The first horse is started on the exterior track, in 
front of the stand, and the two others, in order to equalize the 
distance, are started in the rear, on their respective tracks, which 
are selected by lot. 

The horses come up at a jog, each one to his place. A judge 
is placed beside each horse whose duty it is, by waving a bit of 
cloth, to notify the starter, who is in the stand, that the horse 
under his charge has arrived at his position. The horses are 
started from the stand by the stroke of a bell, which sets in 
motion at the same time the hands of a great dial which mark 
minutes and seconds. At the instant the first horse passes the 
winning score the judge strikes a blow which stops the first hand 
of the dial, and in the same way for the second horse. This 
automatic system gives the time of the race, by means of the 
clock, without error, and enables the judge, who is placed at the 
distance post to decide which of the horses are distanced, to 



94 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDlNG. 

better know the precise instant when the race is finished. A dis- 
tance in Russia is thirty sagenes (210 feet) for a race of three 
versts, and seventy-five sagenes (525 feet) for a race at a greater 
distance. Only three false starts are allowed ; after that number 
the judges can fine the driver of the horse that is responsible for 
the false starts, or can refuse to allow him to go the course. In 
case a driver does not try to win with a horse the judges may fine 
him, and on a repetition of the offense he is liable to visit Siberia 
for a couple of years — a punishment which I imagine, from what 
I hear, would be salutary for some of your American drivers. 

A horse is allowed to make but three breaks during a heat 
of three versts, and the same number in the deciding heat. If 
he makes more he is out of the race, and so is he if he makes 
more than thirteen jumps in one gallop. Each horse in the race 
has a judge especially assigned to watch his movements, whose 
decision as to whether the horse makes more than three breaks 
or more than the permitted number of jumps in one break is 
without appeal ; he has only to touch a button of an electric 
machine designating the offending horse, and a groom on horse- 
back in front of the stand at once rushes off to notify his driver 
to quit the track. 

For all the prizes given by the societies anyone can trot, as 
he pleases, to a droschka (the national Russian vehicle, four- 
wheeled, and very clumsy and heavy as compared with the sulky) 
or to a sulky with two wheels and four reins. The weight of the 
vehicle and of the sulky is equally ad libitum for all the prizes 
given by the societies. The government, for prizes which it 
gives, specifies for itself the kind of vehicle, its weight, the 
weight of the driver, and the distance to be trotted. 

There are two seasons for racing. The summer races occur in 
May and June, and are trotted twice a week, on Sunday and 
Wednesday. They are started at 6 o'clock in the evening, the 
days being so long in Russia that it is light until 11 o'clock at 
night, and thus the heat of the day is avoided, which is an 
advantage for both the horses and the spectators. 

In winter the races are always trotted on Sundays, and on the 
ice. But two horses are started at a time, and on the opposite 
sides of the same course, which is but one verst in length. 

The droschka of which Mons. Goujon speaks, although 
a rather clumsy-looking vehicle to American eyes, is really 



THE BKEEDS OF HOKSES. 



95 



a very light and easy-running road wagon, weighing only 
about seventy pounds. The verst is 3,500 feet in length, 
being a fraction less than two-thirds of a mile. 

I have before me, as I write, a statement of the best time 
made at all distances, in Kussia, each year, from 1861 to 
1876, inclusive, from which it would appear that no improve- 
ment was made in the speed or endurance of the Orloff 
trotter during the last five years embraced in this period. 
The fastest time ever made for one verst was 1:40, by Poi- 
tieshnoy, in 1869, which rate of speed, if kept up for one 
mile, would be a very little below 2:31. This rate of speed 
has never been reached by any other Eussian horse— the 
nearest approach to it being 1:42 1-3. The same horse has 
the best record at three versts, being 5:00, equal to two miles 
in 5:01%. This appears to have been an exceptional case, 
however, as the next best performances are three versts in 
5:06 once, and 5:07 twice. The best time for four and a half 
versts is 7:52, equal to 7:54^^4 for three miles. For seven and 
a half versts the best time is 13:49, equal to 13:56% for five 
miles. For thirty versts the best time is 1:08:30, equal to 
twenty miles in 1:08:53)^, which is by over 3:00 minutes the 
best performance by a Russian horse at that distance. Com- 
paring these records with those of our American trotters we 
find the following: 



Best Russian time. 

One mile 2:31 

Two miles *5:01M 

Three miles 7 :52y2 

Five miles 13:56?4 

Twenty miles l:08:53i/2 



Best American time. Difference. 

One mUe 2:09i4-21?£s. 

Two miles 4:46 — 15?i8. 

Three miles. ... 7 :21i4— 3114s. 

Five miles 13:00 — .56?is. 

Twenty miles.. 58:25 — 10m. 28i/4s. 



From the foregoing, the superiority of American trot- 
ters, at all distances, is very clearly shown; as I do not 
share in the often-expressed opinion that our system of 



* Exceptional time ; 5:072i being the best with this single exception. 



96 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

training, our tracks and our vehicles are materially better 
than the Enssian. More than 2,000 American trotters have 
beaten the best one-mile time made in Russia; and al- 
though two-mile races are not common in this country, the 
exceptionally fast time of 5:01% for that distance made by 
Poitieshnoy has been beaten by nearly all of our great 
trotters; and I have no doubt but that we have fifty trot- 
ters in training today that are capable of beating that time 
by several seconds. No Orloff trotter has ever succeeded 
in trotting twenty miles within an hour by nearly nine min- 
utes, while five American horses have accomplished that 
feat. Another point of contrast, in which the American 
trotter shows at a great advantage over his Russian com- 
petitor, appears to be in campaigning qualities. The oldest 
reported Orloff winner is twelve years. Goldsmith Maid 
was in her prime at twenty. Pietel, the most noted Orloff 
campaigner, was a winner for four successive years; the 
Maid was a winner for thrice that length of time, while 
most of our great trotters have steadily improved until they 
were fifteen or sixteen years of age. 

It is also worthy of note that while the Russian trotter 
appears to have attained his maximum of speed several 
years ago, the improvement on the part of our American 
horses in this respect, within the past ten years, has been 
truly wonderful. Certainly the showing for speed and en- 
durance of the Orloff trotter does not compare favorably 
with the American, although the former undoubtedly pos- 
sesses both of these qualities to a high degree. It is^ 
claimed, however, that in beauty of form the Orloff is 
greatly the superior of our American production ; but here, 
again, I must be permitted to put in a demurrer ; for, if the 
animals that I have seen may be taken as fair specimens of 
the breed, the facts are certainly the reverse of this state- 



l^HE BKEEDS OF HORSES. 97 

ment. Our breeders will undoubtedly object to the prevail- 
ing color of the Orloffs, as upon an analysis of the winners 
in that country we find that fifty-five per cent are greys, 
twenty-four per cent blacks, fourteen per cent bays or 
browns, and six per cent light bays. 

CLEVELAND BATS. 

Many years ago, before railways came into general use, 
there was recognized in England a breed of horses called 
Cleveland Bays; but with the general application of steam 
to the uses of locomotion the breed fell into disuse, and all 
English authors, with whom I am conversant, who have 
written within the past thirty years upon the horses of 
Great Britain have treated the breed as extinct. Within 
the past three years, however, there has been a determined 
effort upon the part of Yorkshire breeders to gather up 
whatever may be yet remaining of this once popular blood 
and to resuscitate the breed. To this end a society was 
organized about a year ago, and Vol. I of the Cleveland Bay 
Stud Book has just been issued as a result of this effort. 
How much of the old blood has been found, and what were 
the conditions essential to admission in this initial volume, 
I am not able to state, as I have not yet seen a copy of the 
work. 

Following modern Enghsh authors and the English 
agricultural press, I have repeatedly within the past ten 
years expressed the opinion that the Cleveland Bays were 
no longer regarded as a distinct breed in that country, and 
for expressing such an opinion I have been subjected to 
much ill-natured criticism. I certainly had no reason to 
misrepresent the facts, and I only aimed to give accurate, 
reliable information, to those who asked for it, upon a sub- 
ject that interested all horse-breeders. Within a year or two 



98 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

past the English agricultural press have begun to again 
speak of the Cleveland Bay as a breed, but as late as Nov. 
18, 1881, I find the London Live-Stock Journal, the only 
distinctively live-stock serial publication in Great Britain, 
stating that : 

The Cleveland that some people write about is not a Cleve- 
land; it is only the nearest approach to what the Cleveland was 
like. If there is such a thing as a pure Cleveland the owner 
should stick to him; the breed, it is possible, may be resuscitated. 

The Mark Lane Express of about the same date quali- 
fied a reference of the same sort by the remark, "if there be 
such a breed ;" and Mr. Frederick Street, who as late as 
1883 wrote "The History of the Shire Horse" in England, 
speaking of the heavier classes of horses, says : "The only 
distinct breeds now recognized are the Shire horse or Eng- 
lish Cart horse, the Clydesdale and the Suffolk, the Cleve- 
land Bay being well-nigh extinct." 

The standard writers upon the horse for many years 
past, such as Youatt & Burn, Youatt & Spoon er. Prof. Low 
and "Frank Forrester," have all treated of the Cleveland 
Bay as an extinct breed. "Frank Forrester" (Henry Wil- 
liam Herbert), the most recent of these writers, in Vol. II, 
p. 20, of his great work, speaks as follows of the course of 
breeding which has rendered the Cleveland Bay extinct : 

The first gradation, when pace became a desideratum with 
hounds, was the stinting of the best Cleveland Bay mares to good 
thoroughbred horses, with a view to the progeny turning out 
hunters, troop-horses, or, in the last resort, stage-coach horses, 
or, as they were termed, machiners. The most promising of 
these half-bred colts were kept as stallions; and mares, of the 
same type with their dams, stinted to them, produced the im- 
proved English carriage horse of fifty years ago. 

The next step was the putting of the half-bred fillies, by thor- 
oughbreds out of Cleveland Bay mares, a second time to thorough- 
bred stallions; their progeny to become the hunters, while them- 



1?HE BREEDS OF HORSES. 



99 



selves and their brothers were lowered into the carriage horses; 
and the half-bred stallions, which had been the getters of carriage 
horses, were degraded into the sires of the new, improved cart 
horse. 

From this, one step more, brings us to the ordinary hunter of 
the present day of provincial hunting countries, for light weights, 
and persons not willing, or able, to pay the price of thorough- 
breds. These are the produce of the third and fourth crosses of 
thorough blood on the improved mares, descended in the third or 
fourth degree from the Cleveland Bay stock, and are in every 
way superior, able and beautiful animals, possessing speed and 
endurance sufficient to live with the best hounds in any country, 
except the very fastest, such as the Melton Mowbray, the North- 
amptonshire, and, perhaps, the Vale of Belvoir, where the fields 
are so large, the land all in grass, and the scent so fine that fox- 
hunting in them is in fact steei-le-chasing; so that no fox can live 
before the hounds on a fine scenting day above half an hour, nor 
any horse, except a thoroughbred, live even that time with the 
hounds, having fourteen stone or upward on his back. 

No sort of breeding in England is so profitable as this. The 
breeder is comparatively secure against anything like ultimate 
loss, while he has a fair chance of drawing a capital prize, in the 
shape of a first-rate hunter or a carriage horse of superior qual- 
ity; and it is to the breeding of such a class of animals that the 
attention of the farmers, in horse-breeding counties, is wholly 
directed at this date. 

For this reason one has no more pure Cleveland Bays, the use 
of the stallion of that breed being entirely discontinued; large, 
bony, slow thoroughbreds of good form and great power, which 
have not succeeded on the turf, having been substituted for them, 
even for the getting of cart and farming-team horses; and the 
farmers finding it decidedly to their advantage to work large, 
roomy, bony, half or two-third-bred mares, out of which, when 
they grow old, or if by chance they meet with an accident, they 
may raise hunters, coach horses, or, at the worst, chargers or 
machiners, rather than to plow with garrons and weeds, the 
stock of which would be valueless and worthless, except for the 
merest drudgery. 

It must be conceded, therefore, that if I was wrong in 
stating that the Cleveland Bays were no longer recognized 



100 A TEteATISE Olf HOESE-BREEDING. 

in England as a distinct breed I was at least in good com- 
pany. 

About three years ago I addressed a letter to Mr. Geo. 
T. Turner, editor of the Mark Lane Express, of London, 
asking for his opinion as to whether the Cleveland Bay still 
existed as a distinct breed in that country. He replied in 
substance that of late a demand for the old sort of Cleve- 
land Bays had sprung up, and the breed was in a fair way 
to be resuscitated. He thought there was material enough 
left to operate on, and stated, to quote his exact words, that 
"the Cleveland is undoubtedly the produce of the thorough- 
bred horse (race horse or hunting stallion) on the North 
country cart mares; this was the origin of the breed, and it 
was created for coaching purposes. The coaches, toward 
the last, required faster horses, and these were superseded 
by the railway. So the Cleveland fell into disuetude. Now 
they are wanted again for fast, heavy town work. If a stud 
book were started we should see that material was in exist- 
ence." He added that he would agitate the question in 
England. 

A week or two later there appeared in his paper, the 
Mark Lane Exiwess, the following: 

In reply to a question from a correspondent in the United 
States as to the present status of the Cleveland breed of horses in 
this country, we are of opinion that there is material enough left, 
especially in Yorkshire, to form the basis of a herd book and a 
very profitable breeders' industry. The railway locomotive 
drove the old Cleveland Bay horse off the road, but the more 
modern type of Cleveland horse, or, at all events Yorkshire-bred 
horses of the Cleveland stamp, with rather more of the thorough- 
bred stallion's influence apparent, are precisely the cattle that are 
to be seen in the use of railway companies for their lighter work, 
especially the newly-appointed omnibuses which have been started 
by the railway companies in London, and for which the cheaper 
French horses hitherto used are neither strong enough nor fast 



THE BKEEDS OF HOESES. 101 

enough. It is remarkable that the railway companies, which took 
the old Cleveland horse's occupation away, should be among the 
first to give it back again in a different form; but it is plain 
enough to anyone who will give the necessary attention to the 
subject that the light van work of the new heavy omnibus work 
of the metroplis is bringing to London a lot of very superior and 
valuable horses from the northern breeding districts, which to all 
appearances have the old Cleveland blood for their basis, and 
which obtain their speed and style from the judicious use of the 
blood of the thoroughbred stallion. 

This seems to leave no room for doubt that the so-called 
Cleveland Bay of today is being created, as was the breed 
when it was formerly considered a breed, by a mingling of 
the blood of the thoroughbred race horse with that of the 
large bay mares of Yorkshire ; hence, while I adhere to the 
opinion that, properly speaking, the old Cleveland Bay has 
become extinct, as a breed, yet I am free to admit that there 
is still much stock remaining in that region possessing the 
old Cleveland Bay characteristics, and perhaps much of the 
blood that formerly belonged to this breed; and it is evi- 
dent that the same course of breeding which originally 
formed the breed might speedily restore it from the mate- 
rial now remaining in that country, as well as in this, viz. : 
the use of stout, strong and stylish thoroughbred sires upon 
large, active and stylish bay mares. Whatever of this mate- 
rial there may yet be in existence in Yorkshire and else- 
where in England will no doubt be utilized for this purpose, 
and to this end the new Cleveland Stud Book will doubtless 
be of great service. 

ENGLISH SHIEE OE CAET HOESES. 

No point in equine history is better established than is 
the fact that to the regions bordering on the western coast 
of Europe, once known as Normandy and Flanders, the 



102 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

world is indebted for the basis of its various breeds of 
draft horses. Flanders especially was famed, away back in 
the middle ages, for its famous breed of black horses; and 
this race appears to have been the prevailing one through- 
out the north of ancient Gaul and of Germany, from the 
mouth of the Rhine, eastward, and Prof. Low thinks, " in- 
habited in the wild state the vast region of marsh and forest 
which stretched all through Europe, eastward, to the 
Euxine sea." It was from this source that the rulers of 
Great Britain drew in large numbers for the purpose of in- 
creasing the size of the horses of the Island. How or when 
this breed originated is a subject upon which history throws 
no light; but as early as the eleventh century they were 
largely imported into England, and royal edicts and regula- 
tions were repeatedly issued for the purpose of encouraging 
the use of the large stallions of this breed. King John 
imported at one time 100 choice stallions from Flanders, 
Edv/ard II followed in the same course, and it would seem 
that in the time of Henry VIII these Flemish horses were 
inseparably associated in the British mind with the idea of 
immense size and massive proportions, for we are told that 
when King Henry first saw the Princess Anna of Cleves, a 
remarkably large coarsely-formed woman, who was to be his 
fourth spouse, he expressed his opinion of her by the ejacu- 
lation: "Egad, she is built like unto a great Flanders mare!" 
It is not my purpose to follow up, step by step, the 
several importations that were made, from time to time, of 
these heavy horses from Germany, Holland and Flanders, 
nor to recount the various stages of development which 
resulted in the formation of what is now known as the Shire 
horse or English Cart horse. One of the early Earls of 
Huntingdon is mentioned by Prof. Low as having been 
especially active in his efforts to improve the British breeds 



THE BEEEDS OF HOKSES. 103 

of heavy horses; and Robert Bakewell, who first taught the 
world the great principles of good stock-breeding, brought 
his great genius and skill to bear upon the same object. He 
went himself to Holland, where he selected several mares 
which he brought back with him to England; and by pur- 
suing the same methods of careful selection, mating and 
feeding by which he had achieved such distinguished suc- 
cess with other kinds of stock, he showed the English 
people how to form a breed of draft horses which has since 
become famous the world over. Other breeders followed 
his example, and as late as the beginning of the present 
century importations of both stallions and mares from 
Flanders were by no means uncommon. 

At this time the black color was still a characteristic and 
distinguishing feature of the heavy horses of England, as 
it was of the parent stock from across the channel. They 
were of immense size, with great strength, but were heavy, 
dull and sluggish in temperament, and slow and awkward 
in motion. Prof. Low, writing of these horses in his " Do- 
mesticated Animals of the British Islands," says : 

The modern English Black horse retains the general charac- 
teristics of the pre-existing race, but greatly modified. His color 
is usually a sooty black, with frequently a white lozenge- shaped 
mark on the forehead; and he has very generally one or more of 
the feet and part of the legs, and not unfrequently the muzzle, 
white. His body is massive, compact and round; his limbs are 
stout, his chest is enormously broad, and his neck and back are 
short. His mane is thick and somewhat frizzled, and his legs 
below the knee and hock are hairy down to the heels. His whole 
aspect conveys the idea of great physical power without corre- 
sponding action. The main defects of his conformation and 
temperament are his too great bulk of body and want of action 
and mettle. For a pull with a heavy weight he is admirable; but 
he steps out short, and is slow in all his motions. 

These powerful horses are in extensive demand, not only in 
the midland counties, where they are reared, but over all the 



104 A TKEATISE ON HOKSE-BEEEDING. 

south of England, for the labors of the field, and for wagons and 
heavy carriages of all kinds. They are everywhere to be seen, 
moving at a slow pace, in the numerous heavy wagons by which 
merchandise is conveyed inland, and in great numbers in all the 
larger cities and sea-port towns, where they are used for trans- 
port of heavy goods at wharfs, for the carriage of coals, timber, 
building materials, and for a thousand purposes. In London, 
where the largest and finest are in demand for the carts of brew- 
ers, the wagons of coal merchants, and other uses, the stranger 
sees with admiration the vast number of enormous carriages in 
endless motion through the crowded streets, drawn by teams of 
the largest horses in the world; and, doubtless, there is something 
noble in the aspect of these huge creatures, yoked in lines, and 
obedient to the voice amidst all the tumult of a great city; but 
examination shows that there is an excessive waste of power, both 
in the unnecessary bulk of the animals and in the manner in 
which their services are performed. They are usually attached 
in lines, which causes them to pull by sudden jerks and with un- 
equal force; and, in turning the corners of narrow streets and 
lanes, it is often seen that the entire weight of the enormous car- 
riage is thrown, for a time, upon the shaft horse. It is contended 
by many that extreme weight and bulk of body are necessary for 
these horses to enable them to resist the jolting and sudden 
obstacles encountered on the rough pavement which they never 
leave. But, in truth, it is habit and a species of pride which lead 
the owners of wagons to prefer the largest and most showy horses 
to those of moderate size and more useful action; for experience 
can not but show that it is muscular force and not the vis inertice 
of great weight of body which best enables a horse to overcome 
continued obstacles. The mere gratification of taste, however, in 
the employment of these splendid horses would scarcely require a 
passing censure were it not that this gratification exercises 
a really hurtful influence in the breeding districts, causing atten- 
tion to be directed to size and appearance rather than to useful 
properties, and tending to perpetuate that unnecessary bulk of 
body which constitutes so great a defect in the breed. Nor is this 
influence unimportant in degree; for it is to be observed that the 
demand for horses of the largest class is not confined to the 
capital, but extends to all the numerous cities and populous towns 
where drays and wagons are in use. When animals of the largest 



THE BREEDS OF HOEPES. 105 

size are in demand, and the highest prices are paid for them, it 
becomes the interest of breeders to employ large stallions and 
use every means to favor the development of size in individuals. 
In the counties of Lincoln and Cambridge, whence the great Lon- 
don drays are chiefly supplied, a breeder measures his success 
by the stature of the individuals which he is able to rear. At the 
age of two and one-half years the colts are often seventeen hands 
high. They are bought at this age by graziers near the capital 
and used in the light work of the plow until four years old, 
when they are fit for the services to which they are destined, and 
disposed of at high prices. 

In 1879 a society was organized in England for the pur- 
pose of preparing and publishing a stud book of the Shire 
or Cart horse of England, and in February, 1880, the first 
volume of the w^ork, which has since grown to five volumes, 
was issued. In an introduction to this first volume by K. 
S. Eeynolds, M. E. C. V. S., it is stated that: 

The draft horse of the present day undoubtedly, and unfor- 
tunately, is one of mixed and impure breed; there exist few, 
if any, whose genealogy on both dam's and sire's side can 
be traced for even four generations. The assumption of an ad- 
mixture of extrinsic blood is made more evident by comparison 
of the conformation and color of the existing race with the Shire 
horse of seventy years ago. Authorities upon horse-breeding 
forty or fifty years since were ceaseless in their objections to the 
slow, ponderous movement of the draft horses of their day, and 
strongly urged the necessity for crossing them with animals of 
more slender build, in order to attain increased activity and 
quicker pace. A large section of the horse-workmg community 
is now suffering from a too extended application of this crossing, 
possibly because breeders did not pursue an intelligent and syste- 
matic course in the selection of suitable animals for the attain- 
ment of their intended object, leaving too much to fortuitous 
circumstances, and probably attaching too much importance to 
activity, which, if attained at the expense of deterioration in 
strength, becomes a defect for the purposes of town work. 

For the business of commercial centers like Liverpool, for 
instance, where the team work is subordinate to the dock, ware- 
8 



106 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

house and railway regulations, rapidity of movement is found to 
be a very secondary desideratum to the possession of individual 
strength. Under these conditions a team (two) of dray horses 
must be fully capable of working a net load of five tons, the 
task of shafting which it is obvious no lightly-built animal can 
accomplish satisfactorily. 

A written description of a high- class Shire stallion of sixty 
years ago may, for the purpose of comparison, possess consider- 
able interest to breeders of the present time. Such a sketch can, 
of course, but very imperfectly convey to the reader's mind an 
idea of the conformation of one of these old sires, but it may 
possibly afford a framework whereon his imagination can build 
those features which a literary representation fails to make clear. 

With very few exceptions (and those exceptions chestnut), 
black, dark brown and grey are the only colors met with in the 
descriptions of draft stallions living in the first quarter of the 
present century. To account for this limitation two reasons may 
be advanced : firstly, fashion in color may have been considered 
a very important element in the selection of a sire ; secondly, the 
light browns, bays, chestnuts and roans of the present day are 
probably due to extensive infusions of light-horse blood. 

Whichever of the two reasons is accepted as the correct one, 
inquiry among old horsemen leaves no room for doubt that 
black, brown and grey were by far the most common colors of 
draft horses. It is further ascertained that black predominated 
over the two other colors, so much so that the eastern counties 
horse was known and described as the " Black Lincolnshire 
horse," also that the highly-esteemed brood mares of Derbyshire 
were chiefly of that color. The color of the black horse was not 
remarkable for intensity, but partook more of a very dark slaty 
hue, some few specimens of which are now occasionally seen in 
Lincolnshire. In the majority of cases these black horses were 
marked to a very considerable extent with white upon the legs 
and face. In Derbyshire the white facial markings often gave 
rise to the names of horses ; for instance, the numerous "Blazes" 
were undoubtedly so called from the possession of a blaze face ; 
other appellations, as "Ball," "Bald horse," "Balled-faced horse," 
more rarely met with, possibly implied a greater suffusion with 
white than the title "Blaze." 

In Staffordshire the prevailing color appears to have been 



THE BBEEDS OF HORSES. 107 

brown ; as early as 180(5 horses are described as descendants of 
the ''old brown Staffordshire breed." Grey horses appear to 
have been more common in counties south of Derbyshire and 
Staffordshire, but it is probable that the coats of many of the 
so-called black horses had interspersed therein a considerable 
sprinkling of white hairs, and that they were occasionally 
described as greys : there is one instance, about forty years ago, 
of an Oxfordshire horse being sometimes described as a black 
and at another period a grey. 

The head was large in all its dimensions, well placed on the 
neck by strong, broad and deep attachment ; the forehead and 
face wide, expressive and intelligent ; a side-view of the jaws and 
muzzle represented those parts to be remarkable for depth ; the 
ears were small and carried slightly outwards: the eyes somewhat 
small, not prominent, but generally mild and moderately intelli- 
gent in expression ; the nostrils and mouth large, firm and well 
closed ; the neck was long, arched and remarkable for its depth, 
and for the strength of its insertion between the shoulder-blades, 
not as it is now frequently seen, badly placed, by having the 
appearance of being fused, as it were, i(20on the front edge of the 
blade-bones, a conformation affording insufficient room for the 
collar, and therefore one most defective for the purposes of 
heavy draft. The shoulders were massive, muscular, upright, 
low and thick at the withers, thrown well outwards beyond the 
insertion of the neck by the front ribs being properly arched. 
The fore arm was long, strong and muscular; the knee broad and 
flat in all its aspects : the fore and hind canons short and thick, 
frequently measuring upwards of twelve inches in circumference, 
covered with coarse skin, and having a "beefy" appearance and 
touch, more marked in advanced age than in youth. The pastern 
bones of the fore leg were very short, strong and upright, those 
of the hind leg being much more obliquely i)laced. The feet, as 
a rule, especially the fore ones, were large, flat, weak at the heels, 
and invested with horn of somewhat soft and spongy texture. 
Thighs narrow, being insufficiently clothed with muscle on their 
inner aspects to prevent the appearance of what is vulgarly but 
characteristically termed "split up." The hocks were of rather 
defective formation, but showing little predisposition to disease, 
generally too short, too round, and not sharply defined ; for these 
reasons it may be inferred that the hind action was limited and 



108 A TEEATISE ON HORSE-BKEEDING. 

comparatively wanting in elasticity. The general contour of the 
hind legs was considerably bent, the hocks being thrown back- 
ward and the feet forward. The breast wide and full of muscle, 
indicative of great strength rather than quick movement; the 
back longer, narrower and ^'dipping" rather too much behind 
the withers. The heart-ribs were well arched, but not very deep; 
the hinder ones were also rounded, but short, the last one placed 
too far forward, giving to the body an appearance of undue 
length and "lightness." The croup bent at considerable angle, 
denoting what would now be considered want of quality. The 
dock strong and thick, with powerful broad attachment to the 
trunk. 

The tout ensemble of the stallion exhibited grand development 
of the fore-hand, which rendered the appearance of the hind 
parts very mean by comparison — a conformation, however, that 
a moment's reflection will show to be in perfect accord v/ith nat- 
ural ordination; from mankind downward, in the scale of mam- 
malian creation, the entire male is deficient in that development 
of the posterior parts so notable in the perfect female of each 
species, and for apparent reasons. 

The growth of hair upon these old stallions was remarkably 
luxuriant, that of the mane and tail being abundant, strong in 
texture, glossy, and very often several feet in length. The can- 
ons, fetlocks and coronets, both fore and hind, were garnished 
with a profusion of coarse long hair, distinctive of the Cart horse 
breed. The silky growth in corresponding situations of the pres- 
ent day has probably become thus modified from the admixture 
of extrinsic blood, from local influences, from altered methods 
in the system of rearing and managing young stock, or from a 
combination of two or all these causes. 

It is perhaps worthy of observation that there were, and still 
remain, some specimens of three apparently distinct types of 
draft horses exemplified by differences in the local distribution 
of long hair: 

First. Horses having the upper lip garnished with a long, 
thick mustache, considered at one time a distinguishing charac- 
teristic of the Lincolnshire horse. The color of these appendages 
is always black, white, or a mixture of the two, and invariably 
corresponds with the hue of the skin from which they spring. 

Second. Horses having the lips, muzzle and eyelids destitute 



THE BEEEDS OF HOKSES. 109 

of hair. The skin in these situations, being either entirely bald 
or covered with exceedingly fine down, is almost invariably flesh- 
colored, sometimes marked with small dark spots and blotches. 
Specimens of this type may possibly have originated the appella- 
tions ''bald horse" and "balled-faced horse." 

Third. Horses having a long tuft of hair growing from the 
front of each knee, and rarer examples having also a similar 
growth (quite distinct from the ordinary hair of the back of the 
canons) from the hind part of the hock, just below its point. 
Animals of this type are now seldom seen. In my experience 
they are more frequently met with in Wales than in the English 
shires, though no reason can be assigned why that is so. It is 
found that these peculiar hirsute growths invariably accompany 
a luxuriant development of long hair in its ordinary situations, 
and generally a more than ordinary strength of bone below the 
knees and hocks. Sex does not appear to exert any influence in 
determining the special characteristics of any of the three types, 
stallions, mares and geldings being equally prone to inherit these 
peculiarities from progenitors similarly possessed. 

These horses have long been extensively bred in Leices- 
tershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Oxfordshire, Lancashire, 
Yorkshire, Cheshire, Nottingham, Northampton, Lincoln- 
shire and Cambridgeshire; the last tw^o counties named 
perhaps producing the most thoroughly characteristic and 
representative animals of the breed. 

The importation of this great breed of heavy horses to 
America has not been pushed with as much energy, noi' car- 
ried on to anything like so great an extent, as the merits of 
the breed would have justified. Occasional importations of 
one or two individual animals have been made from time to 
time, but it is only within the past five or six years that 
they have been imported in any considerable numbers. 
They are growing rapidly in popularity, however, in the 
great agricultural States of the Mississippi valley, and 
steps are now being taken to secure the publication of a 
stud book for the breed in the United States. 



110 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

CLYDESDALES. 

To recount the origin of the Clydesdale breed, now so 
popular and so extensively diffused throughout the United 
States, would simply be to recapitulate much of Avhat has 
been written in the preceding pages concerning the origin of 
the draft breeds of England, for they have been evolved 
from the same original stock and by substantially the same 
course of selection and breeding. We have the same origin 
for both breeds iu the great Black horse breed of Flanders. 
We hear of their introduction first in Lanarkshire, the orig- 
inal home of the Clydesdale breed, when William, Earl of 
Douglas (one of the ancestors of the Duke of Hamilton, who 
in later years became so famous as a breeder of Clydes- 
dales), obtained an especial edict of "safe conduct" from 
King Edward I to take "ten grooms and ten large horses 
from certain places in Scotland to certain places in Teviot- 
dale in the King's dominions." This safe conduct was 
issued July 1, 1352, and is the earUest positive mention we 
have of great horses in Scotland. The editor of the Clydes- 
dale Stud Book, commenting on this document, says : 

Unfortunately it does not say where the horses came from; but 
as Baliol held the Douglas estates it would appear as though 
they were to be taken from Lanarkshire into Teviotdale, thfin in 
possession of the English. Douglas' quarrel with his kinsman, 
William of Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, whom he slew, 
taking possession of his estates; his rupture with King Edward 
of England, and his turning of Baliol out of the ancestral estates 
of the Douglas family in Liddesdale, Annandale and Clydesdale, 
leave little room for doubt that, if large horses did not exist in 
Lanarkshire previous to this date, as the extensive trade done 
with Flanders by the Scottish merchants lead us to believe they 
did, some, if not all, of the black stallions foimd their way to 
Douglas Castle, in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire.* 

* Clydesdale Stud Book, Vol. II, p. xvi. 



THE BEEEDS OF HOKSES. Ill 

Scotch authorities generally concur in naming the Upper 
Ward of Lanarkshire as the place where the Clydesdale 
breed was first brought to any considerable degree of per- 
fection, and in the "Retrospective Volume" of the Clydes- 
dale Stud Book we read that : 

Some time between 1715 and 1720, John Paterson, of Loch- 
lyoch, on the estate and in the parish of Carmichael, grandson 
of one John Paterson, who died at Lochlj^och in 1682, went to 
England and brought from thence a Flemish stallion, which is 
said to have so greatly improved the breed in the Upper AVard as 
to have made them noted all over Scotland. The Lochlyoch 
mares were famous in the Upper Ward during the latter half of 
the last and the first two decades of the present century; and a 
Mrs. Paterson, of Lochlyoch, mother of the present tenant of 
Drumalbin, now ninety-seven years of age, still has recollection 
of a noted black mare from which many of the best stock in the 
Upper Ward are descended. The family tradition is strongly 
supported by the fact that the Patersons were in the habit of 
noting down important agricultural items from a very early 
period; and the T:>resent representative of the family, Mr. Pater- 
son of Drumalbin, has in his possession a family tree of all the 
descendants of that John Paterson who died in 1682. In the 
year 1836, in reference to a day's plowing given to one of the 
Patersons on leaving Lochlyoch for Drumalbin, the following 
remarks appeared in an Edinburgh newspaper, from which it 
will be seen that their claim to being the founders of the breed 
was then recognized. After descanting on the merits of the family 
and kindred topics, the writer proceeds: "And it may be here 
worthy of remark, that it was a brother of Mr. Paterson's grand- 
father who brought the notable stallion from England to 
Lanarkshire— the sire of the famous Clydesdale breed of horses 
of which the county has been so long and justly proud." 

What were the distinguishing features of the native breed 
previous to the introduction of the Flemish horse, about 1715, 
can not now be definitely determined, but there can be little doubt 
that they were mostly of English origin, and of a mixed char- 
acter. The old drove road from Scotland to England crosses the 
Clyde at Hyndford Bridge, and leads across the hills by Car- 
michael and Crawfordjohn— the very center of the then horse- 



112 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

breeding district; and the intercourse which the farmers would 
thus have with their neighbors from tlie south, and the amount 
of traflfic done by pack-horses, would doubtless allow of many 
opportunities for selecting animals calculated to improve the 
breed. 

The Lochlyoch mares were generally browns and blacks, with 
white faces and a little white on their legs; they had grey hairs in 
their tails, occasional grey hairs over their bodies, and invariably 
a white spot on their belly, this latter being recognized as a 
mark of distinct purity of blood. The mares died out at Loch- 
lyoch about thirty years ago. 

The Lochlyoch stock having been long noted in the Upper 
Ward and largely drawn upon by breeders, there is no doubt that 
to them, or, more correctly, to the black horse of 1715, the 
Clydesdale horse owes its present distinctive character.* 

There can be no question as to the fact that there has 
been an almost constant mingling of the blood of the Shire 
or Cart horse of England with that of the Clydesdale 
of Scotland, and that at the present day the differences 
between the two breeds are so very slight that many intelli- 
gent breeders of both England and Scotland have nrged, 
and continue to urge, that they should be classed as a sin- 
gle breed, and that but one stud book should be maintained 
for them. It is a well-known fact that the "English cross" 
can be clearly traced in the pedigrees of some of the most 
successful prize-winners and sires of Scotland. In 1877 
the Clydesdale Society of Great Britain and Ireland was 
formed, and the compilation of the Clydesdale Stud Book 
was at once begun. The work has been vigorously followed 
up until six volumes have been issued. This fact, taken in 
connection with the organization of the English Cart-Horse 
Society and the publication of its stud book, clearly indi- 
cates that the lines are to be more closely drawn hereafter, 
and that henceforth crossing between the heavy horses of 

* Clydesdale Stud Book, Vol. 1, p. xvii. 



THE BKEEDS OF HOKSES. 



113 



England and Scotland will not be regarded with favor. 
Hence we may expect to see the draft horses of the two 
countries each gradually assuming a more distinct type 
within a few generations of equine life. 

Further interesting information concerning the early 
history of Clydesdale breeding in Scotland I quote from 
the introduction to Vol. II of the Clydesdale Stud Book, 
as follows: 

From the articles in a large and handsome work on om- 
"National Breeds of Animals," published under the auspices of 
the Highland and Agricultural Society, with beautiful illustra- 
tions by Howe, it would appear that the Upper Ward farmers 
brought several animals from England which bred well. Thus 
in an account of Meg, Vv hich won first prizs at the Highland and 
Agricuhural Society's Show at Glasgow in 1828, it was said that 
she was by a grandson of Young Britain, by James Thompson's 
(of Broomfield, Glasgow) Britain, a grandson of Blaze, a horse 
belonging to Mr. Scott, of Brownhill, Carstairs, Lanark, which, 
as mentioned in the history to the retrospective volume, won 
the first prize at a show held in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh, in 
1785. Blaze, which traveled in the Lothians and Berwickshire, 
is described as a beautiful jet black, his legs silvery white to the 
knees and hocks, and a broad white stripe or blaze down the 
face. In a letter from Mr. French, of Burnhouses, who, at the 
request of the editor of the volume, waited upon Mr. Scott, then 
eighty-nine years of age, the sire of Blaze is said to have been 
an English draft horse. This may possibly have been the case; 
but from the description given of the heavy, black horses of 
England of that period it is not likely to have been one of them, 
but more likely a Cleveland, if not one of the Ughter-legged 
pack horses used in Yorkshire and other parts of England at 
the commencement of the present century. The dam of Young 
Briton is also reported to have been a Derbyshire mare. Meg, 
which is a brown with white markings, the same color as her 
dam, is a stylish, upstanding, leugthy mare, with an exceedingly 
neat head and clean legs; in fact, she is what would nowadays 
almost be described by west-country dealers as "gyp." A por- 
trait is also given in the work of a noted horse, Young Clydes- 



114 A TBEATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

dale, a stallion of considerable reputation at the time in the 
Lothians and Berwick. He is represented in plow harness, with 
collar and "breeching," a costume now rarely seen on a stallion. 
Like Meg, he seems to possess a thoroughbred look about the 
head, in which is set a very full, vigorous eye, has a shoulder well 
sloped, and an apparently clean fore leg, with a slight fringe. 
His fault on the portrait, which, it has to be remarked, is drawn 
from life, is want of muscular development in the hind quarters 
and thighs. There is a total absence, as in the case of INIeg, 
of superfluous hair, the pastern-joints and foot being clearly 
defined. In color Young Clydesdale was a jet black, with white 
markings. He is said to have been descended from Blaze, the 
colors of the most successful progeny of which seem to have 
been blacks and greys — colors not now in favor, the latter being, 
as regards entire colts, very unfashionable. This is, no doubt, 
owing to the action of the Highland and Agricultural Society in 
restricting their competition to black-bays and brown-bays, and 
Mr. Frame's practice of castrating all grey colts. 

Probably the directors thought grey an unsuitable color at 
the time for horses for agricultural purposes. As the ban is now 
removed in competition, and as grey horses look particularly 
stylish in street lorries, little objection can be taken to them. 
Grey horses, it may be remarked, are of a different original 
stock to either blacks or bays, Campbell Smith, in his work, 
being of the opinion that they are part of the original grey or 
white stock of the Euxine, and that they are always of higher 
stature than the bays, which are from Africa, the Teutonic word 
bayard, from which, in his opinion, the word bay is derived, 
signifying "a horse." It is worthy of notice that the latter word 
is never used to denote colors of animals other than horses. The 
greys are always, too, it will be observed, strong, handsome 
horses, and in days when the color was more fashionable among 
breeders were preferred as cavalry chargers, hence those mag- 
nificent horses of the Scots Greys which evoked the admiration 
of Napoleon I at Waterloo. That the breed was distinct in 
descent, till mixed within the past 150 years or so, may be noted 
from the fact that you rarely, if ever, get a grey unless the sire 
or dam is grey, while the fact that you can get a brown from a 
grey or with a grey stallion shows that the strain has gradually 
been overpowered by the denser blood of the blacks and browns. 



THE BREEDS OF HOESES. 115 

It has been remarked that the Clydesdale has been improved 
as regards size and strength during the past thirty or forty years, 
or since the period when Young Clydesdale's type was fashion- 
able. A good deal of this is due to the admixture of blood from 
the south, which has, however, been done at the risk of losing 
ancient important characteristics of activity and (luality. Those 
breeders who have worked in this direction have generally, how- 
ever, kept the Clydesdale type in view, and no doubt many of the 
animals brought ba^k were crosses from the Scotch horses or 
mares, which the south-country buyers purchased from time to 
time at the Scottish fairs, but the pedigrees of which could not 
unfortunately be traced. The breed, therefore, has not been so 
much improved as some writers would try to make out, and at 
Kilburn Show the merest tyro in horses could distinguish in their 
classes the Clydesdales from the more ponderous but less active 
draft horses of th3 English shires. 

It is well known that the Clydesdale owes its quality and other 
good characteristics to the pasture ; sluggishness and coarse, 
greasy legs being the characteristics of animals reared in low- 
lying lands with moist pastures; while on dry hill or mixed sandy 
lands, the grass of which contains plenty of lime, active animals, 
with sound, clean legs and healthy, durable hoofs, are bred and 
grazed to advantage. * * * Indeed, to the rich sand-mixed 
lands ox Kintyre, the healthy herbage which covers the tliin soils 
of the Galloways, and the nourishing blades of grass which cover 
the lime-containing hills of Lanarkshire, the Clydesdale of the 
present day greatly owes his activity and quality, characteristics 
which have always rendered him superior in the eyes of the 
foreigner when viewed alongside bis more massive market com- 
petitor in the south, reared on the '"wershy" herbage of the fens. 

Modern Clydesdales are of all colors, bays, browns and 
blacks predominating, although there are some greys and 
chestnuts, while white markings on face, feet and legs are 
quite common with all the colors. They have been exten- 
sively imported into the United States and Canada, and have 
exercised a very powerful influence upon the horse stock of 
our country. No other breed of draft horses, saving the 
Percherons, has been so extensively introduced, and be- 



116 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

tween these two breeds the contest for popular favor has 
been waged upon very nearly equal terms for several years 
past. The question of color has always been a strong point 
in favor of the Clydesdales with American breeders as 
against their French rivals, the latter being usually grey, 
while with the former dark colors are the prevailing ones. 

The Clydesdale Society of America was organized in 
1877. The first volume of the American Clydesdale Stud 
Book was issued in 1882, and Vol. II of the work has just 
been printed. Col. Chas. F. Mills, of Springfield, 111., has 
been secretary of the society from its organization, and 
has done a valuable service to the Clydesdale interest in 
America by compiling the records of the early importations 
and preparing for publication the two volumes of the stud 
book that have been issued. The rules governing., entries 
in this stud book require that American-bred stallions and 
mares must trace to recorded sires or dams, or have four or 
five recorded top crosses respectively, and in case of impor- 
tation to be recorded in the Clydesdale Stud Book of Great 
Britain and Ireland. 

PERCHEEONS. 

The Percheron is an ancient French breed, originally 
famed for its capacity for rapid locomotion with a heavy 
load, and especially adapted to drawing the heavy diligences 
or post-coaches used in France before the days of the rail- 
way and locomotive. Tradition has long attributed to the 
Percheron— confessedly among the most active and powerful 
of the heavy breeds of the European continent— an Oriental 
origin ; but it was not until the researches recently made 
in the compilation of pedigrees for the first volume of the 
Percheron Stud Book of France that the extent to which 
the blood of the Orient had entered into the formation of 



THE BRfiEDS OF HOESES. 



117 



the Percheron race was fully realized. What the Darley 
Arabian was to the Enghsh thoroughbred, and the Grey 
Arabian Smetanxa to the Orloff, the Grey Arabian GaUipoli 
has been to the Percheron horse of France. Dihgent and 
persistent inquiry in the family records and traditions of 
the best breeders of La Perche has enabled the compiler of 
the Percheron Stud Book of France to trace definitely a 
large proportion of the most noted Percheron horses of 
modern times to this Arabian sire, that was imported about 
1820. In fact, this Oriental blood, wherever introduced, in 
all nations and all climates, has been a powerful factor in 
effecting improvement in the equine race. 

There is every reason to believe that this breed, like the 
draft breeds of England and Scotland, derived its size orig- 
inally from the large Black horse breed of Flanders; but 
from the fact that grey has for many generations been the 
prevailing color it is evident that some very powerful 
agency has been at work, modifying the type until it has 
but little in common with this old parent stock except size. 
In Vol. I of the American Percheron Stud Book it is stated 
that: 

The Uttle of history that can be found touching this breed 
definitely points to an eastern origin. Some French authorities 
date its beginning as far back as 732, when France was invaded 
by the Saracens, 300,000 strong, under the command of the 
famous chief Abderame. The utter defeat and overthrow of this 
barbarian host by the French, under Charles Martel, on the 
plains between Poitiers and Tours, left the fine Arab and Barb 
steeds upon which many of the invaders were mounted in the 
hands of the victors; and these horses, crossed upon the large, 
strong native mares of that region, if they did not form the 
starting point for the breed which, since that time, has become 
so famous, undoubtedly had much to do with creating the 
foundation upon which it was ultimately built. 

Another large infusion of the same Oriental blood took place 
upon the return of the Crusaders, who brought with them many 



118 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

of the finest of Arabian stallions; and these were also extensively 
used upon the already excellent stock of La Perche, and served 
to stamp upon them the form and other distinctive marks of the 
Arab to a still greater degree than they already possessed. The 
infusion of fresh Arabian and Andalusian blood was kept up for 
many years, at irregular intervals; the Lord of Montdoubleau, 
Geoffroy IV, Rotrou, Count of Mallart, Count of La Perche, 
Count Roger of Bellesmer, and many others of the nobility, 
having been distinguished for the importations made by them 
and the interest which they took in the subject of breeding 
horses; and as late as about 1820 we find that two famous 
Arabian stallions, Godolphin and Gallipoli, both grey, were im- 
ported and extensively used under the direction of the govern- 
ment. * '■ * 

Aside from the history and traditions of the coiintry the 
Percheron horse himself furnishes unmistakable evidence, in his 
form, disposition, color and general characteristics, that he is 
closely allied to the Arab. These characteristics have been mate- 
rially modified, it is true, and the size has been greatly increased ; 
but, in the hands of the excellent horsemen of La Perche, and 
under the careful and fostering supervision of the government, 
which exercised a direct control over the selection of sires, he 
seems to have retained many of the excellent qualities of his 
Oriental ancestry; and this, added to the greatly-increased size 
which had been attained, made the horses of La Perche many 
years ago the wonder of the world for their specialty of rapid 
draft— their ability to move a heavy load at a rapid gait. 

It was this acknowledged superiority of the Percheron horse 
in the diligences, post-coaches and omnibuses of France that 
first caused the attention of the outside world to be directed to 
them. It was not simply as draft or cart horses that they were 
distinguished; on the contrary, had they possessed no excellence 
beyond this they would scarcely have attracted any attention; 
for other countries possessed horses that, for the purposes of 
heavy draft alone, were certainly their equals, if not their 
superiors; but it was in that happy combination of size and 
form, which gave them activity, quickness of motion, strength 
and endurance, that they were found to excel the horses of 
all other countries. * -^ * But, with the introduction of rail- 
roads, the use of the post-coach and diligence was practically 



THE BKEEDS OF HORSES. 



119 



abandoned; and as this was the specialty for which the Perche- 
rons we have described had been bred, so, with the new order of 
things, came a demand for horses of larger type— greater weight, 
a heavier bone and more substance were required— and since that 
time the improvement of the Percheron in this direction has 
especially engrossed the attention of the French breeder. ■'^ * * 

As the immense draft horses of the North (Flemish) were 
closely allied to, if not identical with, the large breed that pre- 
vailed in Normandy and La Perche prior to the modifications 
produced by the introduction of the blood of the Arabian and 
the Barb, heretofore alluded to, it was very natural that, when 
the Percheron breeders found it desirable to increase the size of 
their horses, their eyes should be turned towards this kindred 
race, from which other countries had already drawn so heavily 
for the same purpose. Accordingly, we find that mares in large 
numbers were taken from these northern departments, and from 
Belgium, under the various names of Belgians, Boulonnais, 
mares of Picardy, etc., and were bred to the stallions of La 
Perche. Stallions from the same countries were also extensively 
introduced, under various names, and of slightly differing types; 
but, notwithstanding the multiplicity of names arising from the 
different departments in which they had been bred, and the slight 
variation in form that existed, they were, after all, nothing more 
nor less than the Flanders draft horses— the same blood that 
had already exercised so potent an influence upon the horse stock 
of Great Britain. 

The new infusion of this ancient kindred blood has been so 
general throughout the entire district which was once the home 
of the Percheron horse, that it is now difficult to find a pure 
Percheron as they were bred in that region fifty years ago. The 
old type that once made these horses so famous has been sacri- 
ficed to the demands of commerce for greater size; and for many 
years past it has been the chief aim of the Percheron breeder to 
produce a horse that should comply with this demand, without 
sacrificing the activity, hardiness and docility for which the 
ancient Percheron race was famed. 

Subject to the change above alluded to, the Percheron is still 
extensively bred in the departments of Eure, Orne, Eure et Loir, 
Loir et Cher and Sarthe; and they have also found their way 
further north and toward the sea coast in the departments of 



120 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

Seine- Inferieure and Calvados, embracing almost the entire 
ancient province of Normandj'; but nowhere are they found so 
purely bred, and so nearly allied to the original Perchcron type, 
as in the five departments first above mentioned — their original 
home. In that part of Normandy lying along the coast, espe- 
cially north of the Seine river, the Flemish element seems to 
have made its influence more strongly felt, and there the horses 
possess more of the Flemish and less of the Percheron character- 
istics than those bred farther south, in the heart of La Perche; 
which will account for the diversity in the character of the horses 
brought to this country by our importers. Those who have pur- 
chased near the coast, or north of the river Seine, have usually 
obtained horses that leaned strongly toward the Flemish type. 
They are larger, coarser and more sluggish, with less energy, 
endurance and action, than those bred in Eure et Loire and the 
adjacent departments. They are better adapted to heavy draft 
purposes than their lighter, but more hardy, active and stylish 
relations of the interior, frequently weighing from 1,700 to 2,000 
pounds in high flesh, and producing larger horses when crossed 
upon our common stock. 

In the report which I made to the Department of Agri- 
culture in 1883 of my observations on the hve stock of 
Europe I spoke of the Percheron as follows : 

I went first to the sales stables of Paris, fortified with what 
knowledge I had been able previously to obtain upon the subject, 
beginning with that of M. Vidal, a noted horse-dealer of Paris, 
who has undoubtedly sold more stallions to American importers 
than all the other horse-dealers of Paris combined. In reply to 
my question he said: ''Fully ninety per cent of the horses that I 
buy to sell to Americans, for stallions, come from beyond Char- 
tres, in the Perche; the others are i)icked up here and there, 
wherever we can find one good enough for the market; but we 
sell them all as Percherons." The other dealers all told substan- 
tially the same story. After spending a few days in Paris, talk- 
ing with horsemen and gathering what information I could, I 
determined to see the Percheron breeding district for myself. 
All authorities agreed in pointing out Nogent-le-Rotrou, situated 
about one hundred miles southwest from Paris, in the ancient 
Province of La Perche, as the heart of the Percheron breeding 



THE BEEEDS OF HOESES. 121 

country. * * * On the day of my arrival at Nogent-le-Rotrou 
a large number of Percheron breeders had met to consult upon 
the propriety of establishing a Percheron Stud Book, in order to 
preserve the purity of the race and to protect themselves from 
unscrupulous dealers in Paris and elsewhere. I was much inter- 
ested in the discussion which took place. The gentlemen present 
represented the principal breeders for some twenty or thirty 
miles around, and I was told that they owned at least one hundred 
stallions that had been kept for service this season. I questioned 
many of them. Among others the statement of Mr. Ernest 
Perriot, one of the most noted of the breeders present, is a fair 
sample of what all had to say. He is a very intelligent gentle- 
man, and has sold many horses to American buyers. I should 
judge him to be about fifty years of age. His statement was in 
substance as follows: 

I have been breeding horses right here all my life, and my father 
and grandfather were in the same business before me. We never breed 
or sell any other than pure Percherons. We have usually kept six or 
seven stallions each year for service. They travel around the country, 
serving mares owned by the farmers at about twenty-five francs each. 
We keep an eye on these mares, know where the best ones are, and when 
the foals are weaned we buy many of the best ones each year and keep 
them until we can sell them at a fair profit. I am sure there has been 
nothing but recognized pure Percheron stallions used in our stud since 
the time of my grandfather, and nothing else has been used in this whole 
Percheron region within my knowledge. There is a tradition that about 
the time my grandfather engaged in the business some Eoulonnais blood 
was introduced into this country for the purpose of increasing the size 
of the Percherons, but certainly there has been none since about fifty 
years ago. The true Percherons will now average as large or larger than 
the Boulonnais. Neither Mr. Dunham, Mr. Dillon, nor any other Ameri- 
can importer, has ever bought any Norman horses here. We don't have 
any such horses. You can see plenty of Normans in Paris; they are 
small horses, mostly bays, and are used in the cabs and carriages. They 
are generally half-bloods, got by English thoroughbred sires, and some 
of them are out of Percheron dams, and they are usually called Anglo- 
Normans. 

The same statements, substantially, in regard to purity of race 
and the name, were obtained from all the breeders interviewed, 
notably Auguste Tacheau (Province of Sarthe), Pierre Sagot 
(Province of Eure et Loir) and Celestiu Caget (Province of 
Orne). In fact, so far as I could learn, it was almost an insult to 



122 A TKEATISE ON HOKSE-BKEEDING. 

ask one of the breeders present if he bred or sold any other than 
Percheron horses, and they spurned the term "Norman" with 
contempt. * * * It was an agreeable surprise to me to learn 
that so much pains has been taken by these Percheron breeders 
to preserve the purity of the race. I had often heard it asserted, 
even by some importers, that nobody knew anything about it; 
that the Percherons were mongrels, and that no man in France 
could give the pedigree of his horse. I found, on the contrary, 
that, while they have not paid much attention to preserving the 
maternal genealogy, many of the sires can easily be traced six or 
eight generations. 

This breed has been extensively imported into the 
United States, and has been variously known as Perche- 
rons, Normans, Percheron-Normans, Norman-Percherons 
and French horses; and inasmuch as this multiplicity of 
names is very perplexing to the uninitiated, and has led to 
no small amount of controversy (not always in the best of 
temper), it is proper that certain well-established historical 
truths should be placed upon record in this volume for the 
information of such persons as may resort to it to learn the 
facts. 

The first importations of these hoi'ses that attracted 
anything like general attention in this country were those 
brought to Union and Pickaway counties, Ohio, in 1851, 
and these were by their importers simply called French 
horses. Another importation to the same region followed 
in 1856, and yet another in 1857 ; but they w^ere known only 
as French horses. In 1865 J. H. Klippart, secretary of the 
Ohio Board of Agriculture, went to Europe ; and these 
horses having become very popular in that State he made 
their origin and history an especial object of study while in 
France. On his return he submitted a report to the Ohio 
State Board, in which he gave an exhaustive account of the 
horses of France, and stated that our so-called French 
horses were Percherons. In 1853 Col. Charles Carroll, of 



THE BREEDS OF H0ESEf5. 123 

Baltimore, Md., imported from France a stallion which he 
called a Percheron. In 1866 Mr. S. W. Ficklin, of Char- 
lottesville, Ya., made an importation of these horses, and he 
also brought with him the use of the name Percheron. The 
Hon. Wm. T. Walters, of Baltimore, Md., spent several 
years during and just after the close of our late war, in 
France, and while there he became so enamored of the Per- 
cherons that, returning in 1868, he brought with him quite 
a number of horses, which he called Percherons in this 
country. He also caused to be translated and published an 
interesting work entitled the "Percheron Horse," written 
by Du Huys, Master of the Horse to Louis Napoleon. This 
book, together with the writings of Mr. Klippart and Mr. 
Walters, and the usage of the importers before named, 
served to fix the appellation of Percheron quite firmly upon 
these horses throughout the middle and eastern States, so 
far as they were known. Twelve years prior to the first 
Ohio importation mentioned above Mr. Edward Harris had 
imported four horses from France which he called Nor- 
mans. These horses were considerably smaller than the 
Percheron importations of a later date, and, although they 
were extensively noticed in the newspapers of that day, 
they failed to attract pubHc attention to any considerable 
degree. 

In the autumn of 1854 Louis Napoleon, one of the two 
French horses imported to Ohio in 1851, was taken to Illi- 
nois, and, in 1858, was sold to E. Dillon & Co., of Normal. 
This horse soon attained great notoriety, the Messrs. Dillon 
showing him and his get at many State and County fairs as 
Norman horses, and this name soon became quite generally 
applied to them in Illinois and the adjoining States. From 
1868 down to the present time the importations of these 
horses have been very numerous, and importers and breed- 



124 A TREATISE OX HORSE-BREEDING. 

ers have used various names by which to designate them; 
some caUing them Percherons, some Normans, and others 
combining the two names, some placing the Percheron first, 
and others beginning with the Norman. 

Matters were in this shape when the movement for a 
stud book was inaugurated. At the first meeting called for 
that purpose, which was held at Chicago in February, 1876, 
and was attended by about a dozen persons, nearly all re- 
siding in central Illinois, it was voted to adopt the term 
Norman ; and in pursuance of arrangements placed on foot 
at that meeting I was entrusted with the work of compiling 
a stud book of the breed. But when the book appeared, in 
September, 1876, contrary to the original plan, it was called 
a Percheron-Norman Stud Book. This action created a 
good deal of opposition from those who insisted on drop- 
ping the term Percheron entirely; and at the next meeting 
of the association, held after the first edition of the book 
was published, the subject was very fully discussed. This 
meeting was held at Peoria, Feb. 14, 1878, and was attended 
by nearly one hundred persons, about fifty of the number — 
representing eight different States and Territories — being 
active members of the association, which, at its former 
meeting, when the movement was inaugurated, only had a 
total membership of fourteen. The first motion made at 
this meeting was one by Dr. Ezra Stetson, to change the 
name of the association from "Norman" to "Percheron," 
which brought up the question of the name of the stud 
book, and I was called upon to give the reasons which in- 
duced me to depart from the original order of the society. 
In response to this inquiry I stated, in substance, that : 

When, in pursuance of an arrangement with the society, I set 
about the work of preparing a record of imported French draft 
horses, fully intending to carry out the instructions of the society 



THE BEEEDS OF HOESES. 125 

in reference to the name, I was met at the very threshold by 
decided opposition on that point. I found the use of the term 
Norman confined exclusively to the west. The society which had 
inaugurated the enterprise comprised but fourteen members, and 
these nearly all resided in central Illinois, while those interested 
in these horses were scattered throughout all parts of the United 
States and Canada. The stud book, to be of any service, must be 
such as to command the support of all sections. More than half 
of those who were interested designated these horses as Per- 
cherons. Those east of Ohio used this term almost exclusively. 
In Ohio they were usually called French horses. In Illinois, Iowa, 
Wisconsin, and elsewhere in the west, breeders generally desig- 
nated them as Percheron-Normans, or Norman-Percherons, in 
their advertisements, catalogues, etc., while the people in the 
west, in talking of them, almost universally called them Nor- 
mans. In the literature of France they were always called Per- 
cherons, and so far as we had any literature in this country upon 
the subject the same name was used. I stated my conviction that 
it was the breed universally known and designated in France as 
Percherons that gave name and fame to the French draft horses 
that are imported to the United States. And that I had been very 
much disposed to drop the use of the term Norman entirely, and 
to call the book the Percheron Stud Book, several recognized 
authorities, notably Hon. A. B. Allen, of New York, and Hon. J. 
H. Klippart, of Ohio, having recommended that course. But, on 
account of the previous action of this society, and the extent to 
which the word had been used by breeders and others in the west, 
either by itself or in combination with Percheron, I felt that its 
rejection would work an injury to such as had advertised their 
horses exclusively as Normans, and would tend to increase the 
prevalent confusion. Accordingly I had adopted the compound 
Percheron-Norman as the only one that would give general satis- 
faction, in the full belief that my action would be endorsed by 
this society upon a presentation of the facts. In compiling this 
stud book I found myself acting for a constituency more than ten 
times as large as the association in its membership, and I had 
gone contrary to the instructions of the society at its inaugural 
meeting simply because I had felt myself obliged to"do so in the 
interest of harmony and by a decent regard to historical accu- 
racy. Before taking this action I had consulted with leading 



126 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

members of the society, and I felt sure that my course would be 
endorsed. 

The matter was extensively discussed by the members 
present, and finally by a unanimous vote my action was 
endorsed, the compound Percheron-Norman was adopted, 
and the name of the association changed to correspond with 
this action. 

Very few were satisfied with this unwieldy compro- 
mise name ; people continued to call them Percherons, 
French horses or Normans, as habit dictated, and the con- 
fusion continued as great as ever. Finally the organization 
of the Societe Hippique Percheronne in France, in July, 

1883, and the publication of the Percheron Stud Book of 
France, seemed to offer a simple and easy solution of the 
difficulty, and the American Society at its next meeting 
thereafter, held in November, 1883, wisely decided to adopt 
and adhere to the only name by wiiich the breed is recog- 
nized in its native country. The name of the society and 
of the stud book was altered to conform to that used in 
France, and it is henceforth the Percheron Society and 
the Percheron Stud Book of America. At this meeting it 
was also ordered that no animals imported after Jan. 1, 

1884, should be recorded in the stud book of the society 
unless previously recorded in the Percheron Stud Book of 
France. All draft horses imported as Percherons or as 
Normans prior to that date are eligible, and all animals 
bred in this country showing five top crosses to recorded 
stock may also be recorded. Foals from recorded dams, 
got by recorded sires, are also eligible. 

This society, which was formed in February, 1876, is the 
oldest association of draft-horse breeders in existence, and 
its stud book, the first volume of which appeared in Sep- 
tember, 1876, was the first stud book ever issued for any 



THE BEEEDS OF HOKSES. 127 

breed of draft horses. Three volumes have been issued, 
and the fourth is now being prepared. 

But there was always a party in central Ilhnois that 
opposed the use of the term Percheron as a name for this 
breed; and, notwithstanding the concessions made to them 
by the Percheron party at the meeting in Peoria in Feb- 
ruary, 1878, heretofore alluded to, in which they took an 
active part, they eventually decided upon a separate organ- 
ization; and finally, about three years ago, they organized 
the "National Norman Horse Association," and began the 
publication of the "National Register of Norman Horses," 
two volumes of which have appeared. All draft horses 
imported from France are eligible to record in this work. 
At a meeting of this association, held at Chicago in Novem- 
ber, 1883, it was voted that from and after Jan. 1, 1884, no 
imported horse should be registered that was not previously 
registered in the "Norman Stud Book of France;" but as 
there is no such stud book in existence, and as no such 
breed of draft horses as Normans is recognized anywhere 
in France, the absurdity of this regulation was so apparent 
that at the last meeting of the society, November, 1884, this 
action was rescinded, and the society resolved to ignore all 
French stud books and pedigrees, and decided to base regis- 
tration, as formerly, upon the simple fact of importation. 

The organization of the Percheron Society of France 
and the publication of a stud book for the breed in that 
country will doubtless do much toward preserving its 
purity; and if this book shall be honestly and carefully 
managed, as I have every reason to think it will be, it will 
afford a guarantee as to purity of lineage which has hitherto 
been sadly lacking. Most of the horses bought by Ameri- 
can importers from dealers in the large cities of France 
have doubtless possessed a good share of Percheron blood, 



128 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

but there has hitherto been no means of ascertaining the 
facts. Our importers have had to rely solely upon their own 
eyes and the integrity of French horse-dealers; and the 
dealers of Paris, Rouen, Dieppe and Havre are no more re- 
liable and scrupulous than the average horse-dealer in 
other parts of the world. Those who have gone direct to 
the district which was once known as La Perche, now com- 
prised in the Departments of Eure et Loir, Loir et Cher 
and Sarthe, where Percheron horses have for generations 
been bred in their purity, and where the fame of the Per- 
cheron race is still guarded as a priceless treasure, have 
always been reasonably sure of obtaining Percheron horses. 
But the Societe Hippique Percheronne, which is managed 
by able men of high reputation, and under very strict rules, 
will hereafter furnish a directory of blood which few honest 
importers will care to ignore, and the result can not fail to 
add to the popularity of the breed in both France and 
America. 

OTHER BREEDS. 

There are several other breeds that should be noticed in 
detail, if it had been my purpose to include in this chapter 
a complete description of all the known breeds of the world, 
but I have chosen rather to confine it to such as are recog- 
nized and known in our own country. Among these I may 
mention briefly: 

The Suffolk Punch, of England, especially distinguished 
as an agricultural horse in that country, uniformly of a 
chestnut or sorrel color, not so large as the Shire horses 
or Clydesdales, but compactly built, round-bodied, short- 
legged horses, rather light-boned for their weight, and with 
the general reputation of being rather defective in the feet, 
especially when used upon hard roads or stony streets, but in 
this respect greatly improved of late years. This is perhaps 



THE BEEEDS OF HOKSES. 129 

the best established of all the heav\' breeds of Great Brit- 
ain, but they are not so universally popular even there as the 
Clydesdales and Shire horses. It is possible that the fact 
that other countries, especially our own, have not appeared 
to demand horses of this type has had something to do with 
their popularity in their own country. Very few of them 
have been brought to the United States, and such as have 
been imported appear to have attracted but little attention. 
A stud book has been instituted for this breed, and several 
volumes have been published within the past six years. 

The Boulonnais is a heavy draft breed, found prin- 
cipally north of the river Seine, and near the sea coast in 
northwestern France, once the home of the old Flemish 
breed, and evidently possessing much of the old Flemish 
character. They are generally grey, hke the Percherons, and 
are usually larger, coarser and less active than their relatives 
of La Perche; but there is no doubt of the fact that when 
the demands of commerce began to call for greater size 
and heavier bone than was characteristic of the ancient 
Percheron race, the Boulonnais blood was largely called 
upon to furnish it. Very httle has been said or written 
about this breed, even by the French people themselves ; 
but taking counsel from the example of their more enter- 
prising neighbors of La Perche, those interested in the 
Boulonnais breed have set about the compilation of a stud 
book and a history of the breed. The author of that work, 
which we understand is about ready for the press, states 
in his introduction that the Boulonnais and the Percheron 
are the only breeds of heavy horses recognized in France. 
It is quite probable that many of the French horses brought 
to this country and sold as Normans or Percheron-Nor- 
mans more properly belong to this Boulonnais breed. 

The Shetland Ponies, too well known to need any 



130 A TEEATISE ON HOKSE-BREEDING. 

description in a work of this nature, take their name from 
the Shetland Islands, where they originated, doubtless 
through the effect of the bleak climate and scanty subsist- 
ence to which the original specimens of the race have been 
for ages subjected upon these islands. They are also bred 
in considerable numbers in the north of Scotland. There 
are other comparatively diminutive races, as the Welsh or 
Exmoor ponies, the Norwegian ponies, and others of Europe 
and Asia, but a description of each and all of them would 
be more interesting to the student of natural history than 
to the practical American breeder. 

The Mustangs, or wild horses, that were found upon the 
plains of Texas and New Mexico, and elsewhere on our own 
continent, are a tough, hardy and usually ill-tempered race 
of small horses, remarkably agile and sure-footed, and have 
descended from the original Spanish stock brought to Mex- 
ico by the Spaniards in their early efforts at the conquest 
of that country. The Indian ponies, so common in our 
western Territories, have undoubtedly the same origin, 
and many of them, especially those that have been bred in 
the higher latitudes, approximate very closely the form and 
size of the Shetland pony. The hardiness and powers of 
endurance of many of these horses are simply marvelous ; 
but these valuable qualities are largely neutralized by ill- 
temper and lack of size. Thoroughbred sires, as well as 
stallions of the various draft breeds, have been used upon 
these mustang mares with excellent results in most cases. 
When tamed and broken they are especially adapted for use 
in herding cattle upon the great ranches of our western 
plains, and for this purpose the genuine mustang is the 
chief reliance of the herdsman. They are bred, herded and 
branded in about the same manner as that practiced by our 
western ranchmen with their immense herds of cattle. 



STALLIONS, BKOOD MAEES AND YOUNG FOALS. 131 



CHAPTER III. 



STALLIONS, BROOD MARES AND YOUNG FOALS. 

If the reader lias given any tliought to the general sub- 
ject of stock-breeding- he must be well aware of the fact 
that he can not gather grapes from thorns nor figs from 
thistles. The general principle that " like produces like " is 
true throughout all animal and vegetable life. Everything 
brings forth after its kind. We sow pure seed and expect 
the produce to be of the same kind. Wheat does not 
produce rye, neither will oats produce barley. The rule is 
just as true in animal life. The great principle that each 
begotten creature is but the sum or essence of what has 
preceded it admits of very few exceptions. We have only 
to apply this general principle, with a knowledge of the 
special characteristics of the various breeds and families of 
horses, as portrayed on the preceding pages, and the 
business of breeding horses of any given type becomes 
greatly simplified. No man would breed to a Shetland 
pony with the expectation of producing a draft horse, nor to 
the ponderous Shire or Clydesdale with the hope of the 
produce turning out a winner on the race course. The 
general characteristics of the breed to which the parents 
belong will be transmitted to the progeny ; and in propor 
tion as the breed is firmly established and uniform in its 
characteristics so will the produce be uniform in its char- 
acter. Whatever has been "bred in the bone" will be 



132 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BKEEDING. 

transmitted. A pair of Shetland ponies will produce a 
Shetland pony -with unerring certainty ; because in all the 
characteristics which distinguish the ponies from other 
breeds of the horse kind they are uniform ; but we can not 
count with certainty upon the color of the hair or the in- 
dividual peculiarities in many minute details, because in 
these minor points uniformity in the race has never been 
established. But whatever has been firmly fixed as a char- 
acteristic of the breed, whether it be peculiarity of gait, 
form, color, size, disposition, or speed, will be transmitted 
with a certainty in proportion to the degree of uniformity 
which has been attained in that particular in the ancestry. 

I have often referred to the heterogeneous character of 
the horse stock of our country, which is a conglomeration 
of every breed and type of the horse kind in the known 
world. Until very recently no intelligent effort has been 
made to keep any of the breeds pure except the thorough- 
bred. We have crossed in and out without rhyme or reason 
until, with the single exception of our thoroughbred horses, 
it is scarcely possible to trace the pedigree of any given 
animal four generations back without finding an admixture 
of all the various breeds and types that have ever been 
known. With such an ancestry it is not to be wondered at 
that disappointments meet the novice on every hand. He 
selects a fine-looking bay mare that will weigh nearly 1,500 
lbs., in moderate flesh, clean-limbed and strong, and he 
looks about for a stallion possessing the same character- 
istics that he may couple the two together to produce a 
first-class draft horse. He has been told that "like produces 
like" so often that he believes it; and this theory leads him, 
very properly, to think that from such a pair his hopes of 
producing good draft horses will be realized. But he is 
disappointed; the produce is not like either of the parents; 



STALLIONS, BROOD MARES AND YOtTNG FOALS. l33 

and he pronounces breeding a lottery, and the doctrine of 
the transmission of the pecuharities of the parents to the 
progeny a humbug. He forgets that heredity transmits 
with certainty only what has been firmly fixed in the ances- 
try; and he loses sight of the fact that his large, fine bay 
mare was herself the produce of a mixed ancestry — perhaps 
of a bay Clydesdale stallion and a little sorrel mare of un- 
known blood, and that his stallion was probably got by a 
half-blood French draft horse, out of a dun pacing mare, 
whose dam in turn was a Mexican mustang. The posses- 
sion of the desired qualities in the sire and dam selected 
was an accidental circumstance; and intelligent breeders, 
with a Imowledge of this fact, would not expect that these 
accidental qualities would be transmitted with certainty. 

SELECTION OF BREEDING STOCK. 

In the appHcation of these general laws which govern 
the transmission of hereditary qualities to the business of 
breeding horses the first step is for the breeder to decide, in 
his own mind, what sort of horse he wishes to produce. If 
his fancy or interest leads him to breed horses for the race 
course he must keep constantly in mind the fact that for 
this purpose, whether for running or trotting, speed and 
endurance of the very highest order are indispensable; and 
here the least unsoundness will prove fatal. In order to 
live through the severe ordeal of training, and the still 
more trying one of the bruising campaign, which taxes the 
utmost powers of the horse day after day, there must be 
no weak spots in his composition. There must be no soft, 
spongy bones and joints; no brittle or contracted feet; no 
tendency to curbs, spavins or ringbones; no weak tendons 
nor feeble lungs in the horse that is to prove a profitable 
campaigner. No matter how much of mere speed the get 



134 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

of any stallion may have shown, if, as a rule, they have 
proven seriously defective in any part of their machinery, 
he should be avoided as a sire by those who are breeding 
for the turf, whether runners or trotters; for the race course 
will speedily search out and bring to light the least taint of 
unsoundness or weakness in any part of the organization. 
Feet and legs, and bones and tendons, and joints and mus- 
cles, and heart and lungs, and brain and eye, must each do 
its part thoroughly in the great race horse. There must be 
that nice adaptation of the machinery, and that firmness 
and fineness of texture in the material of which the machine 
is built, which shall enable it to withstand the tremendous 
strain that is put ujjon it, and which distinguished the great 
campaigners, like Lady Suffolk, Flora Temple, Goldsmith 
Maid, Enghsh Eclipse and his great American namesake, 
from the fiashy ones that blaze out for a single season like 
a brilliant meteor and then sink into obscurity. 

It is this perfection of organism which enables the horse 
to stand up, under preparation and training, year after year, 
profiting by his education and improving with age, that 
makes the really valuable turf horse. It is a quality more 
valuable than speed, because whatever measure of speed it 
possesses can be depended upon and improved. In short, 
it is the quality which distinguishes the thoroughbred from 
the dunghill; the great race horse that, like a Goldsmith 
Maid or a Lexington, will always be in condition to struggle 
for a man's life, from those band-box race horses and newspa- 
per trotters that are never heard from outside of private 
trials and breeders' catalogues. 

These are the considerations that should influence 
breeders of horses for the turf; and no blind devotion to 
a fashionable pedigree, nor mere promise of speed in the 
youngsters got by any stallion, should induce us to over- 



STALLIONS, BROOD MAEES AND YOUNG FOALS. 135 

look a prevailing tendency to any unsoundness or lack of 
endurance in his get. The number of heats and races 
won, and the number of successful years upon the turf, 
are more reliable lamps by which the breeder may guide 
his footsteps than the record of colt stakes and mere tests 
of speed. 

The ordeal of the race course, and more especially the 
trotting course, is very trying upon the legs and feet, and 
here soundness and quality of the highest order is essential. 
The turf horse that is always troubled with "a leg" is a 
nuisance. Curbs, spavins, ringbones, weakened or sprained 
tendons, "bucked" knees and stiffened joints are some of 
the troubles that affect the legs of the horse and greatly 
impair his usefulness. 

The indications of a good leg are firmness, hardness and 
smoothness to the touch, showing an entire absence of adi- 
pose tissue; large, well-defined joints, entirely free from 
abnormal appendages; firm, but elastic, cords; a short 
pastern, short from knee and hock to pastern-joint. The 
shape of the bone should be broad and flat, and the legs 
should stand squarely and firmly under the horse, the toes 
turning neither in nor out. The bone should be of good 
size just below the knee, and flat; but large-sized canon- 
bones, with strong, clean back sinews and suspensory liga- 
ment are of great importance. "Curby hocks," "cow hocks," 
"bowed legs," "calf knees" and "over on the knees" are indi- 
cations that are always unfavorable. 

All these points are to be examined mainly when the 
horse is not in motion ; and when fully satisfied in these 
particulars it is very essential to see that, having four good 
legs, the horse has the abihty to use them properly; that he 
steps with a firm, free, elastic tread ; that the legs and feet 
do not get in the way of each other when he is in motion, 



136 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

but move freely, without interference, and yet without any 
paddling or straddling motion. Stiffness of the joints will 
be most readily detected by causing the horse to step back- 
wards, and by seeing him in motion when first taken from 
the stall, before he has been warmed up. 

The feet, are, of course, a very important appendage to 
the legs. In shape, a medium between a flat foot and a 
mule-shaped one is to be preferred ; and it should always 
be of good size, with a large degree of concavity in the bot- 
tom. The frog should be full and lively, free from thrush 
or canker ; and the hoof must be hard and elastic, with- 
out cracks, and free from brittleness. 

If all these details were looked after by breeders in se- 
lecting brood mares, as well as stallions, we should soon 
note a marked improvement in the legs and feet of our 
horses; for there is not a single good point or defect among 
those above enumerated that is not liable to be transmitted 
to the offspring. It is too often the case that mares espe- 
cially, after having broken down through some inherent 
defect in the feet or legs, so that they can no longer be prof- 
itably used, are relegated to the breeding stud to transmit 
again the malformation that made them worthless to their 
progeny. Like does not always beget like in every feature 
and detail, but in general terms the saying is a true one, 
and defects are just as likely to be transmitted as good 
qualities. Mares or stallions disabled or crippled by acci- 
dent, and not from constitutional tendency or weakness in 
any particular, may be safely used for breeding purposes ; 
but those that have given way through weakness or defects 
in any part of the animal machinery should always be re- 
jected. Breeders of trotting horses have been especially 
neglectful of these sound principles, and thousands of mares 
with some speed, but with legs and feet so unsound as to 



feTALIilONS, BEOOD MAEES AND YOUNG FOALS. 137 

cause them to break down under very slight training, have 
been used for breeding purposes. 

And so with any other form or type of horse that may 
be mentioned. If draft horses are desired select breeding 
stock from some of the best-estabHshed draft breeds. The 
distinguishing characteristics of weight and strength — 
which are the chief essentials in a cart or draft horse — are 
quite firmly fixed in the Clydesdale, the English Cart horse 
and the Percheron, imported to this country from Europe, 
however much they may differ in other particulars; and they 
may all be rehed upon, with a good degree of certainty, to 
reproduce their kind when judiciously coupled. But to 
this must be added docility, soundness and endurance. 
Given all these qualities, and then the more of action and 
style the animal possesses the better. He may be in pos- 
session of all these characteristics except the first, but 
being deficient in that he is not a good draft horse. On the 
other hand he may weigh a ton, but if he be ill-tempered, 
unsound or lacking in endurance his value is materially 
lessened. He may possess all the good points above enu- 
merated, and yet be so deficient in energy and so heavy and 
sluggish in his movements as to come very far short of a 
perfect draft horse. Each of these qualities being desira- 
ble, it follows that the horse possessing all of them in the 
highest degree is the most desirable one. I do not propose 
to enter into a discussion as to the comparative merits of 
the various draft breeds. All have crossed kindly with our 
native mares, and all have marked substantial improve- 
ment, at least in the size of our draft stock, and some of the 
very best results have been attained by a commingling of 
the blood of two or more of these imported strains. 

I do not believe it is possible that a horse can be bred 
combining all the desirable quaHties ; the horse-of-all- 



138 A TREATISE ON HOBSE-BREEDING. 

work is a myth that can not be realized. The general 
farmer needs a horse that combines a good degree of both 
action and weight, but the horse that suits him is not the 
heavy draft horse that is required in the trucks and drays 
of our cities, the demand for which is at present very imper- 
fectly suppUed. On the other hand there has always been, 
and always will be, an active demand for fast road horses, 
too light for general farm work, and with speed, style, docil- 
ity and endurance as the qualities principally sought after. 
Each of these types it will pay to breed, just as it pays to 
raise the various kinds of grain; but if all the resources of 
our country were directed toward producing wheat to the 
neglect of other grains we should very soon find the market 
overstocked and the business unprofitable. And so, if 
everybody catches the draft-horse fever we shall, after a 
while, have an oversupply of heavy horses and prices will 
go down. There is room for all, and a steady demand at 
good prices for good specimens of each type of horses; and 
breeders of the best of any breed need have no fears of a 
serious decline in price. 

There are several styles of horses that sell well at pres- 
ent; and, in the breeding of any of these, farmers may, 
under favorable circumstances, engage, with a fair prospect 
of finding the business profitable. First, and highest- 
priced, are the very fast trotters and runners; but these 
very fast ones are not produced with certainty by even the 
most experienced breeders, with the best of breeding stock 
to work upon and the best of trainers to develop them. 
But there is a fascination about it which attracts many 
gentlemen of wealth and leisure to the business, the ques- 
tion of profit and loss being with them a secondary con- 
sideration. It affords them enjoyment and recreation, 
and it is indulged in mainly to that end; and into such 



STALLIONS, BKOOD MAKES AND YOUNG SKOALS. 139 

hands the breeding of horses for speed alone, whether run- 
ners or trotters, should be left. 

The next class, in the scale of prices, is the large, stylish, 
high-stepping carriage or coupe horse. Such horses may 
be bred with a good degree of certainty, with the proper 
stock to breed from, and there is but little expense attend- 
ing the breaking and training. Such as prove rather defi- 
cient in size, style and action may make very serviceable 
farm horses; but to command the best price for the car- 
riage or coupe there must be rather more of spirit, and 
they must be rather more "rangy" and "leggy" than is 
desirable for the farm. Such horses may be produced by 
coupling large, stout mares with a good-sized, highly-bred, 
stylish, high-stepping trotting stallion, or a stylish, large 
thoroughbred. The latter is the course of breeding by 
which the so-called coach horses of England are usually pro- 
duced. For the better class of horses of this type there is 
an almost unhmited demand, and they could be raised 
in this country and exported to England at a very hand- 
some profit. If thoroughbred or very highly-bred mares 
are used to produce such horses, I would recommend 
the use of a well-bred trotting sire always ; and even 
with cold-blooded mares deficient in trotting action the 
trotting sire should be used. But if the mares are low- 
bred, and yet possess a fine trotting gait, I should, as a 
general rule, prefer a thoroughbred sire, the object being to 
combine, so far as is possible, size, style and fine, high-step- 
ping action. 

Another class of horses, for which the demand is almost 
unlimited, is the blocky, compact, low but quick-stepping 
and active draft horse. For use on our farms and for our 
city street-cars they are wanted of from 1,100 to 1,300 lbs. 
weight. For our omnibuses and express wagons the de- 



140 A TKEATISE ON HORSE-BKEEDING. 

mand is for the same style of horse, but heavier, weighing 
1,300 to 1,500 lbs., while for carts and for heavy freighting 
they can scarcely be too large, provided they are sound, 
hardy and active. The great trouble with horses of this 
class is a lack of endurance. Too many of them have 
broad, flat, brittle hoofs, or the opposite extreme of con- 
tracted, narrow heels; both are to be avoided. Many of 
them have unsound joints, especially the hock joint; and 
the bone is round, beefy, and of a coarse, porous nature. 
In selecting breeding stock to produce this class of horses 
especial regard should be had to these points. The hoof 
should be of good size — neither flat nor contracted at the 
heel. The legs should be clean and flat; the joints firmly 
corded, free from curbs, spavins and beefiness. The flank 
should be full and low, for that indicates a good feeder. 
The chest should be wide and the girth large, for that indi- 
cates lung-power and Avhat is termed "constitution." The 
fore legs should set under the horse, and not be stuck on 
the outside, "like a pin in a log." He should be short on 
the back, long on the belly, slightly arched at the coupling, 
ribbed up closely in the flank, heavy-boned, short-legged, 
compact, blocky, gentle, good-tempered, active, wide-awake, 
but not nervous or restless. Such a horse will sell, and sell 
readily at all times and at a good price, no matter what his 
color may be; and his price will increase in proportion to 
his size, from 1,100 lbs. up to 1,700 lbs. The general farmer 
can not afford to breed for speed; he must leave that to 
gentlemen of means, who, with the choicest brood mares as 
well as sires, and with every appliance for successful train- 
ing, can engage in the lottery of breeding for speed, because 
he can afford to take the chances, and because he finds a 
considerable portion of his reward in the relaxation from 
other cares which this business affords. But the general 



STALLIONS, BKOOD MARES AND YOUNG FOALS. 141 

farmer must raise horses that he can sell. He must do the 
work of the farm mainly with mares that, while performing 
their labor satisfactorily, Vv-ill each year produce colts which 
at four or five years old will be salable horses. He must 
keep such brood mares as, when coupled with good stall- 
ions, will invariably produce horses that answer the de- 
mands of commerce. 

There is no practical diJfficulty in breeding horses of this 
class. If the mares be quite large, with a dash of good 
blood, they may be coupled with a well-bred, large trotting 
stallion or thoroughbred with a considerable degree of cer- 
tainty that the produce will be good coach or carriage 
horses, that will sell. But, as a general rule, our western 
farmers, with their miscellaneously-bred mares, will be most 
successful if they confine their breeding to draft horses. 
With good French, English or Scotch draft horses for sires, 
seventy-five per cent of the foals from ordinary mares will 
make horses that, in fair flesh, will weigh IjlOO lbs. or over 
at maturity ; and such horses, unless seriously defective, 
will sell at good prices. There is no expense for training ; 
the colts are broken by the farmer in doing the farm work, 
and, as soon as they are old enough, they are ready for the 
market ; and such horses can be raised as cheaply as a steer 
to the same age. It will cost a little more at the outset for 
the service of the stalHon, because good, imported horses, 
such as I have described, can not ordinarily be bought for 
less than $2,000, and such stallions can not be kept at less 
than $20 service fee. But this small additional outlay is 
scarcely worth taking into account, when it makes all the 
difference there is between a colt that will sell, as a four- 
year-old, for $150 or more, and one that can not be sold at all. 

I have said that the best available means for producing 
such horses in this country is by a cross of the Percheron, 



142 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

the Clydesdale or English Shire stallion upon our common 
mares; but good judgment must be exercised in the selec- 
tion of a sire. Many of those imported are unworthy of 
the name — they have been brought here because they could 
be bought cheaply and afforded the dealer a better margin 
for profit than a higher-priced horse. The time has gone 
by when the mere fact of importation should sell a horse 
or commend him to patronage. Defects are quite as likely 
to be transmitted as good qualities, and breeders must 
learn to discriminate closely if they would breed success- 
fully any class of horses. 

Many people imagine that there is some great mystery 
— some occult science— involved in the selection and man- 
agement of horses for breeding purposes, but there is noth- 
ing of the kind about it. It is only the application of good, 
common sense and perfect familiarity with the points of a 
horse, joined to a thorough knowledge of the best methods 
of feeding and managing horses in general; because the 
rules that apply in the selection of a foal that is designed 
to be used for breeding purposes, so far as the appearance 
of the animal is concerned, are precisely the same as if it 
were to be selected for other uses; and the general rules for 
the feeding, breaking and training for other purposes apply 
here as well. 

I will presume that the breeder has definitely decided in 
his own mind what breed or strain or family he proposes to 
select from. He ought then to try to find a colt that has 
the longest possible ancestral line uniformly distinguished 
for the quality upon which he bases his selection, and then 
he should look carefully to see that no constitutional infirm- 
ities have been inherited. If there is blindness— not the re- 
sult of accidental injury— in the near ancestry, although 
the colt himself may be apparently free from any defect in 



STALLIONS, BROOD MARES AND YOUNG FOALS. 143 

his organs of vision, it is a point against him. And so of 
any other constitutional defect, weakness, or infirmity, 
whether of form, structure or disposition. Infirmities of 
temper are especially liable to be transmitted. It is very 
desirable that the breeder should know, to the minutest de- 
tail, the character of the ancestry on both the paternal and 
maternal sides; and the farther back they can be shown to 
be free from constitutional defects of any kind the better. 
The colt may himself be free from any serious defects; but 
if they are known to have existed in his near ancestry 
there is always more or less danger that he will transmit 
them to his progeny. Every observant horseman of experi- 
ence can call to mind numerous instances confirming the 
truth of this position. The writer oru3e owned a grey stall- 
ion that was got by a grey stallion, out of a grey mare. 
When placed in the breeding stud it was found that he 
quite often got dun colts, even out of grey mares. Investi- 
gation into the ancestry of this horse developed the fact 
that his second dam was a dun mare. Here we had the 
inherited quality of color lying dormant through two gen- 
erations, and reappearing under the most unexpected cir- 
cumstances in the third. 

But while all these points are important it may not be 
out of place to remind the reader that the man who expects 
to find all the good qualities and perfect immunity from 
fault of any kind, in any one animal, will look a long 
time in vain. This ideal can only be approximated, never 
reached, in any race or breed. 

GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE STALLION. 

The most frequent mistake made by inexperienced per- 
sons, and even by many who ought to know better, is the 
endeavor to have the stallion in fine show-condition by the 



144 A TBEATISE ON HOKSE-BKEEDING. 

time the season opens. To this end various drugs, nos- 
trums and roots are recommended; the horse is kept care- 
fully housed and closely blanketed; he is loaded with fat; 
his muscles become soft and flabby for want of exercise, 
and, although he may come out in the show yard at the 
opening of the season, looking "as sleek as a mole," and 
apparently in the very pink of condition, he is in reality not 
nearly so well fitted for service in the stud as he would have 
been had this fitting-up process been entirely dispensed 
with. 

It may be laid down as a general rule, that a healthy 
horse needs no medicine whatever to put him in condition 
for the stud. The whole secret of successful preparation 
lies in a few words. Let him be well and regularly fed on 
healthy, nutritious food, with plenty of exercise every day, to 
keep his muscles firm and hard, and let him be well groomed, 
so that his coat may present a fine appearance. The skin 
should be kept thoroughly clean by occasional washing 
and frequent brushing and rubbing. The mane and tail 
should be especially looked after, with reference to cleanli- 
ness of the skin. If very dirty, soap may be freely used in 
the cleansing process; and when this is faithfully attended 
to there will be but little danger of having a fine tail or 
mane ruined by rubbing. 

The food should mainly be good, sound oats — nothing is 
better; but this should be varied by an occasional ration of 
corn or barley; for horses, like men, are fond of variety in 
their food, and an occasional change of diet is conducive to 
health. Wheat bran is an invaluable adjunct to the grain 
ration, and can never be dispensed with. It is the cheapest, 
safest and best of all regulators for the bowels, and it is 
especially rich in some of the most important elements of 
nutrition, No specific directions as to the quantity of food 



STALLIONS, BKOOD MAKES AND YOUNG FOALS. 145 

can be given. Some horses will require nearly twice as 
much as others; and the quantity that may be safely given 
will depend somewhat upon the amount of exercise in any 
given case. Some horsemen recommend feeding three, and 
others four times a day; but in either case no more should 
ever be given than will be promptly eaten up clean. If any 
food should be left in the box it should be at once removed 
and the quantity at the next time of feeding should be 
reduced accordingly. As a rule, it will be safe to feed as 
much as the horse will eat with apparent relish; and then, 
with plenty of exercise, he will not become overloaded with 
fat. The hay, as well as the grain feed, should be sound 
and free from mould and dust, and the stall should be 
kept clean, well lighted and perfectly ventilated. 

The amount of exercise to be given will vary somewhat 
with the condition and habit of the horse. If he be thin in 
flesh, and it is thought best to fatten him up, the exercise 
should be lighter than it otherwise would be; and, on the 
other hand, if there is a tendency to become too fat this 
may be corrected by increasing the amount of exercise that 
is given. Draft horses should rarely be led or driven faster 
than a walk in taking their exercise, and they will require 
much less of it than the roadster or the running horse— a 
moderate ''jog" daily will benefit them. I am clearly of the 
opinion that in no one particular is there more faulty man- 
agement on the part of lazy grooms and stable hands than 
in the matter of exercising stallions while doing service in the 
stud. They should not be walked nor jogged so long that 
they vnll become jaded or wearied, but should have enough 
of it daily to keep the muscles hard and firm, the appetite 
good and to prevent them from laying on an undue amount 
of fat. No draft horse, under ordinary circumstances, 
should have less exercise than five miles a day, and the 



146 A TKEATISE ON HOESE-BREEDINGk 

roadster and running horse may safely have six miles, 
which in some cases should be increased to eight or even 
ten. 

The point to be aimed at in the stable management of 
the stallion is to so feed, groom and exercise as to keep the 
horse to the very highest possible pitch of strength and 
vigor. The idea which prevails among many stable grooms 
that feeding this or that nostrum will increase the ability of 
a horse to get foals is sheer nonsense. Anything that adds 
to the health, strength and vigor of the horse will increase 
his virility or sexual power, simply because the sexual 
organs will partake of the general tone of the system; and, 
on the contrary, whatever tends to impair the health and 
vigor of the general system will have a deleterious effect 
upon the sexual organs. A healthy horse needs nothing 
but good food, pure air, plenty of exercise, with due atten- 
tion to cleanliness and regularity in feeding and watering; 
and when all these things are attended to properly the 
drugs and nostrums that stable lore prescribes as "good for 
a horse" would better be thrown to the dogs. 

For the use of the stalHon I like a box stall not less 
than twelve by eighteen feet, without any manger or rack 
whatever for the hay, and with a box snugly fitted in the 
corner for the grain. Many prefer that the feed boxes 
should be entirely, detached from the stall, to be removed as 
soon as the horse is done eating. The hay is put on the 
floor in one corner of the stall, and thus there is nothing — 
no projections, boxes, racks, mangers, sharp angles, etc. — 
upon which a spirited, restless horse may injure himself. 
If, in addition to these precautions, the sides of the stall be 
lined all around — doors and all — with stout boards, stand- 
ing out at the bottom about one foot from the wall, and 
sloping upward and towards the wall for a height of three 



STALLIONS, BEOOD MAKES AND YOUNG FOALS. 147 

and a half feet, you will have a stall in which it will be well 
nigh impossible for a horse to injure his mane or tail by 
rubbing. In such a box the horse need not be kept hal- 
tered, and the owner may feel assured that the liability to 
injury is reduced to a minimum. 

One of the most pernicious and dangerous of all prac- 
tices, especially among breeders of draft horses, is that of 
over-feeding in order to produce great weight. Draft 
horses are not exactly bought and sold by the pound, hke 
hogs and steers; yet frequently the first thing one of these 
draft-horse breeders will speak of is the weight of his horse. 
"That stalhon weighs 1,900." "This filly weighed 1,400 at 
two years old," and similar remarks are specimens of the 
"horse talk" most common among breeders of draft horses; 
and they feed to produce weight, just as the man does who 
is feeding hogs or cattle for pork or beef. It is an easy 
matter to add 200 pounds weight to a fair-sized horse when 
in ordinary fiesh; and a draft horse that has less than two 
inches of adipose tissue on his ribs is not fit to show any- 
where—at least so the fashion runs. 

It is not strange that horses so overfed and loaded 
down with fat should be unable to work in warm weather, 
or that their reputation for endurance should suffer. A 
good roadster weighing 900 pounds when in condition for 
work will make his mile in 2:30 or go for hours at the rate 
of ten miles per hour; but load the same horse with fat, 
until his weight is 1,200— which can easily be done— and 
you can "break his heart" in three minutes on the road. 
Goldsmith Maid was a marvelous trotter, and her easy, cat- 
like strides carried her to the front in 2:14, when she was in 
good condition to trot; but if she had been made as fat as 
a show-yard Clydesdale, she would have waddled like a 
duck, and a "four-minute horse" could have beaten her. 



148 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

Endurance, as well as procreative powers, are largely matters 
of condition, and draft-horse breeders seldom have their 
horses in that condition which is favorable to great excel- 
lence in either*. For the reputation which has, to some 
extent, attached to them as soft and unable to stand up 
under hard work, and as being rather uncertain foal-getters, 
the breeders of these horses have only to thank their own 
pernicious system of extravagantly high feeding; and unless 
they abandon or considerably modify their position in this 
regard the reputation of all our draft breeds is likely to 
suffer still further. Liberal, and even generous feeding, 
with plenty of exercise, is necessary to perfect development; 
but feeding horses as we do hogs or steers, merely with a 
view to adding so many pounds to their weight, is a per- 
nicious custom, and should be condemned. 

A well-informed writer in the North British Agricult- 
urist some years ago animadverted very severely upon this 
pernicious system of overfeeding, which prevails in Great 
Britain to even a greater extent than in this country; and 
his remarks are so pertinent that I quote from the article 
as follows: 

The number of useful horses sacrificed to forcing and feeding 
for show and sale appears to be on the increase alike in England 
and Scotland. Old Citadel, and other frequent prize-winners 
among thoroughbreds, hunters and cobs stand the wear and 
tear of show-yard preparation better than most of the agricult- 
ural horses. A. considerable number of promising young cart 
horses and mares at the Royal Meeting at Bristol were overlaid 
with beef and fat to the detriment of usefulness and soundness. 
Abundant illustration of the evil is seen at every large show. 
Several of the Bristol contingent were sadly gummy and itchy 
about their legs; several were puffed and full in their hocks, look- 
ing as if they had been strained, and had got both bog spavins 
and thoroughpins; from the same senseless high feeding several 
had early developed sidebones. Yet, even with these notable 



STALLIONS, BEOOD MAKES AND YOUNG FOALS. 149 

defects— doubtless regarded by the judges as temporary, and not 
hereditary— several horses at Bristol managed to gain the coveted 
rosettes. Can judges and stewards at important meetings do 
nothing to carry into effect the sensible rules generally laid down 
in their printed programme as to overfeeding, but systematically 
ignored? Can not symmetry, style and usefulness be fairly esti- 
mated without dangerously overloading the animal with beef and 
fat? Should it be essential to the successful exhibition of a good 
horse or bull that for months he should drink, as many do, two 
or three gallons of cow's milk daily? This artificial treatment 
greatly improves the looks of plain, flat-sided, weak-loined sub- 
jects; but it can not give the essential shape, style and action, and 
besides the ailments already mentioned it engenders in horses 
as in other animals, liability to anthrax or blood poisoning, of 
which quarter evil and splenic apoplexy in cattle are the most 
familiar examples. Many gross overfed horses suffer from simi- 
lar conditions; they take what at first appears to be a simple cold; 
the throat becomes very sore, congestion, rapidly followed by 
extravasation of blood, occurs throughout the lining membrane 
of the air passages; treatment in such gross overfed subjects is 
singularly unsuccessful, and in fifteen or twenty hours the patient 
dies, suffocated from pulmonary apoplexy. Among the young 
horses got up for town sale, as well as those sacrificed to showing, 
it is wonderful to observe the amount of fat laid on, not only 
externally, but around the internal organs. The omentum of a 
four-year-old cart horse is sometimes overlaid with four or five 
inches of firm fat. Heart, kidneys and other organs are propor- 
tionally loaded. Amidst the fibres of the heart and other muscles 
the enfeebling fat is also laid down, interfering with muscular 
capability. Woe betide the unfortunate animal which, in such a 
state of obesity, is put to severe exertion. Sudden death may 
result from the giving way of some organ or vessel weakened by 
the fatty degeneration, or dangerous disease of the air passages 
or laminitis is established; whilst eight or ten months of careful 
feeding and regulated exercise are required before such an over- 
fed horse is fit for really hard work. Surely the reprehensible 
fashion of forcing and overfeeding animals intended for work or 
for breeding should be held somewhat in check by the considera- 
tion of the dangers of such a practice, and by its serious inter- 
ference with successful breeding! 



150 A tEEATlSE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

It has been noticed that draft stallions imported to this 
country are frequently troubled with what appears to be 
chronic grease or scratches, which causes ugly, itching 
sores on the legs; and, so far as my observation goes, the 
horses thus attacked have almost universally been such as 
have been kept in very high flesh, with but little exercise. 
From this fact I several years ago adopted the theory that 
this diseased condition was usually the result of the course 
of feeding and management pursued, and that no treat- 
ment would avail to cure the disease so long as the cause 
remained. 

Acting on this theory I undertook the treatment of a 
stallion that was affected as above described. Commencing 
soon after the close of the season, he was turned out in a 
small pasture lot, which was so securely fenced that there 
was no possibility of his breaking out. From this time on, 
so long as the grass remained good, no other food was given 
him. His stable door opened into this pasture, and it was 
at all times left open, so that he could go in and out at his 
pleasure. When the grass began to fail, on the approach of 
winter, he was given each day as much corn-fodder as he 
would eat, but no grain whatever; always giving him the 
run of the pasture. This treatment was kept up until the 
1st of February, the horse being confined to his stable only 
during the night, and not then except in extremely cold or 
stormy weather. He was thus kept about four months 
without any grain whatever, but with all the corn-fodder he 
would eat, after the grass failed. As a result of this treat- 
ment, without the administration of medicines of any kind, 
he was completely renovated and cured, and no symptoms 
of the disease ever appeared afterwards. 

Another case, which affords a striking practical illustra- 
tion of the effects of overfeeding and lack of exercise in 



Stallions, bkood ma.k£s and young foals. 151 

the stallion, is that of an imported Percheron stallion, 
owned for many years by the late Hon. Z. T. Chandler, of 
Michigan. In July, 1876, the man in charge of Mr. Chand- 
ler's stables wrote me concerning the horse as follows: 

This horse was imported to Baltimore in 1868. Two years 
after he was purchased by Mr. Chandler and sent to this farm, 
where he has ever since been. But he was put under very bad 
management— kept in his stall, with very little exercise, some- 
times for months not stepping out of his stall, not even to be 
watered, loaded with fat— and of course he became a very un- 
certain foal-getter. He came into my charge late in the spring of 
1873 in this condition. That season he only got seven colts, three 
of which died from premature birth. After the season was over, 
not believing in that way of treating a stock horse, I put him into 
the team, worked him steadily, fed sparingly, got his flesh off 
from him, brought him to the next season in spare flesh, hard as 
a plow-horse, required his groom to give him at least twelve miles 
of good active motion a day, and he produced that season a very 
fair proportion of colts. I have continued to handle him in the 
same way, and he is now about to close his season, having booked 
a hundred mares, very few of which have been returned to him. 
His flesh is as hard as that of a plow-horse; indeed he is able, if 
I chose to put him to it, to go into the plow, and, to all appear- 
ance, do the best day's work of his life. 

CONTKOLLING THE STALLION WHEN IN USE. 

While the temper and disposition of the staUion are 
largely matters of inheritance, yet much depends upon the 
breaking and management. It is easier to spoil a horse 
than it is to cure him of bad habits, after these are once 
formed. If there is any appearance of a disposition to be 
" headstrong " and unruly he i^hould never be led out ex- 
cept by a bridle that will enable the groom to exercise the 
most perfect control over him. The one that I have found 
most efPectual is made by taking an ordinary " snaffle " bit, 
with rings of moderate size, and with the head-piece made 



152 



A TKEATISE ON HORSE-BREEDINa. 



in the usual way; get a blacksmith to attach a well-polished, 
round iron bar to the right hand ring, by means of a small 
link connecting the bar and the ring ; to the other end of 
the bar attach the usual sliding rein used on stallion bri- 
dles. Put the bridle on the horse in the usual way, and 
then, with the right hand on the bar and the left on the 
bridle-ring next to you, press the bar back and the ring for- 
ward until the bar will pass through the ring in the left 
hand. This bar should be made just as long as it can be to 
admit of its being passed into the other ring in this manner, 
and the bit and rings should be so adapted to the size of 
the mouth and under jaw that, when a little pressure is 
brought to bear upon the rein attached to the end of the 
lever formed by this iron bar, the rings of the bit will be 
brought within an inch of touching each other. The lever- 
age given by this appliance, when well fitted, will enable 
anyone to hold the most unruly and headstrong horse in 
check. It is not necessarily severe when the horse behaves- 
himself, and when he is not disposed to do this he can very 
suddenly be brought back on his haunches by a moderate 
touch on the rein. When the bar is not needed the rein to 
which it is attached may be passed over the head and down 
through the ring on the near side, instead of under the 
jaw. I have described this device fully because it is cheap, 
simple and effective, and yet it does not appear to have 
been extensively used. 

It requires some skill and a good deal of patience to 
teach a stallion how to behave himself properly when 
brought out to serve a mare. He should never be allowed 
to go onto her with a rush; but he should be led up on the 
near side of the mare to within about ten to fifteen feet of 
her, and made to stand with his head towards the mare, 
about opposite her head; and when he is ready he should 



STALLIONS, BROOD MARES AND YOUNG FOALS. 153 

be led towards her, and made to commence the mount when 
at her side, instead of going for a rod or so with his fore 
feet sawing the air, as is often the case. By observing these 
directions there will be but little danger of injury to the 
stalhon by a kick from the mare when he is mounting, 
especially if a good man is at her head to prevent her from 
wheeling towards the horse when he approaches. The dan- 
ger to the horse is always greatest when he is coming off, 
because many mares will kick then that will stand perfectly 
still when he is mounting. To obviate this it is always 
. better for the groom who holds the horse to seize the mare 
by the bits with his left hand at this moment and bring her 
head around towards him by a sudden jerk as the horse is 
coming off. 

But in most cases, indeed in all cases where there is not 
an absolute certainty that the mare will stand perfectly quiet, 
the hobbles should be used, and then there can be no danger. 
To make these, prepare two straps of very strong but soft 
harness leather, two inches in width, and long enough to 
buckle comfortably around the mare's hind pasterns. The 
buckles must be strong and well made, and in each of these 
straps there should be sewed a strong, flattened ring. Next 
prepare a collar-piece of two-inch leather, and about as 
large as an ordinary horse collar, so that the mare's head 
will readily pass through it; to this collar fasten securely 
two stout straps, each an inch and a half wide, and just 
long enough to pass down between the fore legs and reach 
the straps on the hind legs; attach stout buckles near the 
ends of these straps, but far enough from the ends to leave 
room to adjust them to different-sized mares; buckle these 
straps to the rings in the straps that are fastened to the 
hind legs, and buckle up short enough to effectually prevent 
the mare from kicking, if she should be disposed to do so. 
11 



154 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

All this can be adjusted in a moment's time, and by its 
nse all danger from kicking is avoided. 

WHEN MAKES SHOULD BE TKIED. 

A point upon which there is great diversity of opinion 
is when and how often a mare should be tried after she has 
been served by the stallion. A mare will almost invariably 
be "in heat" on the ninth day after foaling, if she is healthy 
and has received no injury in giving birth to her foal; and 
in most cases it is best that she should receive the horse at 
that time, if it is desired that she should be kept for breed- 
ing purposes. I can remember when it was the almost uni- 
versal custom to try mares every week after they had been 
served, but that is not the present practice of experienced 
horsemen. The rule that now receives the most general 
sanction is, not to try the mare again after service before 
the lapse of two weeks. I have taken a great deal of pains 
during the past four years to ascertain the views of promi- 
nent, intelligent and experienced breeders upon this point, 
and I find them, wdth very great unanimity, agreeing that 
after the ninth day from foaling there is no regular period 
for the return of heat, neither is the period uniform in dura- 
tion. Some mares will appear to be in heat nearly all the 
time, while with others it recurs but rarely and lasts but a 
very short time; consequently if the mare, after service, 
goes out of heat within a few days she should be served 
when she comes in again, even if that should be within 
nine days; but should the period not pass off she should 
not be served again under eighteen days. As a rule, it 
is best to try the mare again within from two weeks to 
eighteen days after service, and then, if she refuses the 
horse, she should be tried every week for some four weeks; 
and if she fails to come in within that time it will be rea- 



STAIiLlONS, BROOD MAEES AND YOUNG FOALS. 155 

sonably certain that she is in foal. She ought to be closely 
watched, however, for some weeks afterwards, because in 
some cases mares will pass over a period of one or two 
months, or even longer, without any appearance of heat, 
and yet not be pregnant. Again, there are other mares — 
and they are more numerous than one would suppose — that 
will appear to be in heat and will freely receive the horse 
when they are in foal, and even almost up to the time of 
foaUng. Such mares are always very annoying both to 
their owners and to the keepers of stallions. 

For convenience in trying mares it is best to erect the 
barrier parallel to and about four feet distant from a solid 
fence or wall, so that the mare will be compelled when be- 
hind it to stand with her left side toward the horse ; and 
the barrier should be so substantially built that it can not 
be kicked or pushed down. In many cases the only barrier 
used is a strong pole fixed about three and a half feet from 
the ground; but it is much safer and better to build up the 
space to that height, close and sohd, with strong material 
of some kind, so as to lessen the danger from kicking and 
striking. This may be conveniently done by setting three 
posts firmly in the ground, about four feet apart, and nail- 
ing strong oak or other hard- wood boards to these posts, on 
both sides, from the ground up to the required height, and 
then capping them over with a board of the same material. 
When trying the mare keep the horse well in hand, by the 
use of the bit, previously described, if necessary, and do 
not let him get his nose further back than to the mare's 
flank. If the stallion is a valuable one, and is expected to do 
much service, it wiU be best to have another horse of but 
little value for a teaser, but when the service required is but 
light it will work no injury to the horse to let him do his 
own teasing. Occasionally a horse will be found to have a 



156 A TEEA.TISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

peculiar aversion to a certain mare to such an extent that 
he will refuse to serve her. In such a case it is well to 
bring into the same inclosure another mare that is in heat, 
and when his amorous desire is aroused by her presence he 
can usually be made to serve the one that he had formerly 
refused. 

THE NUMBEE OF MAKES TO BE SEEVED. 

The number of mares that a stallion may safely be per- 
mitted to serve during a season has long been a subject of 
discussion among horse-breeders. It is generally held that 
the two-year-old stallion will be all the better for not serv- 
ing any mares at all, that a three-year-old should be limited 
to fifteen or twenty services, and that a four-year-old should 
not go beyond twenty or thirty. There can be no question 
that the use of the procreative powers by the unmatured 
horse tends to retard his physical development, and as a 
general rule it may be stated that there is no horse but 
would be the better for absolute continence until he is fully 
matured. 

But while this is unquestionably based upon sound 
physiological law, and is the true theory of perfect physical 
development in the male, there are advantages attending 
the earlier use of the stallion to a moderate extent that per- 
haps more than compensate for all the damage that may 
result from it. It is very desirable, at the earliest possible 
stage in the life of a stallion, to ascertain what his quahties 
as a foal-getter are likely to be, and with this object mainly 
in view I consider it wise to let the two-year-old serve a few 
choice mares, merely enough to show the character of his 
get. I should, with the same object in view, permit him, as 
a three-year-old, to serve a rather larger number, which may 
thereafter be increased with each succeeding year until he 



STALLIONS, BKOOD MAEES AND YOUNG FOALS. 157 

is fully matured, when, if properly taken care of with refer- 
ence to food and exercise, one hundred mares may be safely 
served during the season. With the young stallion that is 
to serve but a few mares I should prefer that these should 
all be served within the space of a few weeks — say two or 
three a week until his limit for the season has been reached 
— and then let him be withdrawn entirely from the breed- 
ing stud. He will soon forget all about it — will cease to 
fret after mares, and will have nothing to do but to groiv 
until the next season. But when it comes to doing business 
with the stalhon he should rarely be permitted to serve 
more than twice a day; and even this should not be kept up 
for any great length of time. One a day during the season 
is better; but the groom can not always do as his judgment 
dictates in this matter. If the horse has had a period of 
comparative abstinence he may, if convenience demands it, 
serve three times in one day for a few days in succession; 
but this should not be kept up long, and a season of com- 
parative rest for recuperation should follow this extraordi- 
nary demand. In the great breeding studs of Germany, 
under government direction, it was long held that from 
fifteen to twenty mares was enough for a stallion during 
the season; but the number has gradually been increased 
without perceptible detriment, until now the number fre- 
quently exceeds one hundred. 

The number of mares that a horse serves during a season 
appears to have but little effect upon the percentage of foals 
begotten. We have no statistics bearing upon this subject 
in this country, but such as we have from the books of pri- 
vate keepers of stallions abundantly prove this position. 
The condition of the stalhon appears to be the controlling 
consideration, and so long as he is strong and vigorous his 
powers of reproduction continue. There may come a time, 



158 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BKEEDING. 

however, when from overtaxing this power, partial or entire 

loss of virility may ensue. The books of stallion service 

of Eysdyk's Hambletonian show the following remarkable 

result: 

Mares Per' cent Foals 

Years. Age. covered. of foals. dropped. 

1851 2 years 4 :." 

1852 3years 17 76 13 

1853 4 years 101 78 78 

1854 5 years 88 70 62 

1855 6 years 89 72 64 

1856 7years 87 73 64 

1857 Syears 87 72 63 

1858 9years 72 75 54 

1859 10 years 95 70 66 

1860 llyears 106 68 72 

1861 12 years 98 69 68 

1882 13 years 158 70 Ill 

1863 14years 150 61 92 

1864 15 years 217 67 148 

1865 16 years 193 67 128 

1866 17 years 105 71 75 

1867 ISyears 72 58 42 

1858 19 years None. 

1869 20years 22 81 18 

1870 21 years 22 72 16 

1871 22 years 30 80 26 

1872 23 years 30 80 24 

1873 24 years 31 65 20 

1874 25 years 32 75 24 

1875 26 years 24 8 2 

This table makes the remarkable showing of 1,331 foals 
begotten by a single horse out of 1,930 mares served— an 
average of 69 per cent of foals to mares served. His 
average of mares served from the time he was three years 
old up to the year of his death (not including 1868, when he 
did nothing) was about 83 mares per year. 

The statistics of horse-breeding in Saxony, from 1856 to 
1862, inclusive (seven years), also confirm the position above 
advanced. The returns for 1856 show that the stallions that 
served 90 to 100 mares each produced a greater percentage 
of live foals than those that served any other number, ex- 
cept those that served from 30 to 40. In 1857 those that 
served over 110 mares each produced 25 per cent more foals 
than those that served a less number. In 1858 those that 



STALTilONS, BKOOD MAKES AND YOUNG FOALS. 159 

served 60 to 70 mares got a larger percentage of foals than 
any other, except one that served less than 10, In 1859 the 
highest percentage belonged to those that served 50 to 60 
mares. In 1860 the highest belonged to those that served 
over 90 mares; while those bred to 10 or less stood lowest. 
In 1861 those that served 80 to 90 mares lead, while those 
below 20 show the smallest percentage of foals. In 1862 
60 to 70 were the most productive, while those below 10 were 
the lowest in the percentage of foals produced. From this 
data, as well as those derived from the statistics of horse- 
breeding in France and the general results attained in this 
country, so far as we can approximate them, it is safe to 
conclude that the number of mares served has no influence 
on the percentage of foals got, and that a horse properly 
treated may serve from 80 to 110 mares in a season with as 
large an average percentage of foals as one limited to less 
than half that number. 

EFFECT OF AGE UPON THE FEETILITY OF A STALLION. 

Another point upon which there has been much discus- 
sion is the effect which age has upon the fertility of a stall- 
ion; and here again we are left mthout any official statis- 
tics of horse-breeding in our own country, and will resort to 
those of Saxony. For the years above quoted, 1856 to 1862, 
inclusive, we find the returns disclosing the following state 
of facts: In 1856 the average get of the stallions, aged six, 
nineteen, twelve, eighteen and fourteen respectively, and in 
the order named, was the highest, while those aged eight, 
nine, seventeen, sixteen, five and seven were the lowest. In 
1857 those aged four, twenty, fourteen, seven and eight got 
the largest percentage, in the order named, while those aged 
five, nine, eighteen, seventeen and six were the lowest; and 
those aged twenty-one and twenty-two got more foals than 



160 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

those aged five, six, nine, ten, seventeen and eighteen. In 
1858 the highest average was produced by stallions aged 
nine, ten, five, six, eight, fourteen, seventeen, twenty and 
twenty-two years, and the lowest by those aged eighteen, 
nineteen, four, three, thirteen and seven. In 1859 the per- 
centage was nearly uniform for all ages. In 1860 those 
aged seventeen, eighteen and nineteen led the columns, 
while those aged four, twelve and nine were last. In 1861 
the percentage was quite uniform. In 1860 a stallion aged 
twenty begot twice as large a percentage as one aged four; 
one aged ten stood the highest, while sixteen, six and four 
stood at the bottom of the list. The table above given of 
the get of Eysdyk's Hambletonian also shows that in his 
case age apparently had nothing to do with his fertilty. 
Hence we conclude that, as in the number of mares served, 
so in the matter of age, the reproductive powers of the stall- 
ion appear to be almost entirely a matter of condition, and 
that age has no effect whatever upon the percentage of foals. 

EFFECT OF AGE UPON THE QUALITY OF THE GET OF THE 
STAIiLION. 

There has also been much speculation as to the compar- 
ative value of the foals got by a given stallion at different 
periods of life. The statistics of European horse-breeding 
throw but little light upon this subject, but our own turf 
and trotting statistics furnish us with abundant evidence to 
prove that here also the age of the sire has no effect. 

To illustrate this point I give the following list of 
celebrated running and trotting horses, among the most 
distinguished, either as sires or performers, that have ever 
been produced in America, with the age of sire and dam. 
The age of sire is given at the time of copulation, and that 
of the dam at birth of foal. The list is taken at random 
from names that suggested themselves to me on account of 



STALIilONS, BKOOD MAKES AND YOUNG FOALS. 



161 



their reputation either as sires or performers, and without 
reference to what the figures might show : 



Name of horse. 

Sir Archy 

American EcJipse 

Lexington 

Boston 

Fashion 


Age Age 
sire. dam. 
..27 9 
.. 9 12 
.. 16 14 
..18 19 
..7 10 
..28 6 
..17 7 
. . 6 11 or 12 
..19 13 
..6 10 
..18 5 
..5 7 
..13 10 
.. 14 8 
.. 4 8 or 9 
.. 2 

..4 4 
.. 8 10 
..11 
.. 6 

.. 5 5 
. 9 9 
.. 10 

.. 6 7 
..15 10 
. 4 10 
. 14 9 
..9 6 
. 9 11 
..14 10 


Name of horse. 

Ohtipa 

Spendthrift 

Duke of Magenta 

Parole 

Harry Bassett 

Longfellow 

Preakness 

McWhirter 


Age 
sire. 
. 18 
. 17 
. 24 
. 18 
. 17 
. 13 
. 16 
. 6 
. 21 
. 11 
. 23 
. 24 
. 10 
. 9 
. 4 
. 3 
. 4 
. 8 
. 15 
. 21 
. 4 
. 18 
. 5 
1. 23 
. 18 
. 10 
. 6 
. 7 
. 6 
. 13 


Age 
dam. 
10 
15 
8 
11 
g 


Duroc 

Wagner 

Grey Eagie 


12 
14 

9 


Tom Bowling 

Ten Broeck 


Bramble 

Fellowcraf t 

Sensation 

Iroquois 

Lucille Golddust 

Huntress 


8 
g 


Aristides 

Foxhall 

Karus 

St. Julien 

Goldsmith Maid 


9 
11 

12 
12 


Alexander's Abdallah. 


Prospero 


7 


Volunteer 


Dame Trot 


8 


Dexter 

Lady Thorne 

Lucy 

Nutwood 

Maud S 


Elaine 

Walkill Chief 

Orango Girl 

Indianapolis 

Woodford Mambrino . 

Wedgewood 

Eysdyk's Hambletoniai 

Mambrino Chief 

Darby 

Piedmont 


13 

7 
13 
12 

8 


Hannis 

Mam brino Gift 


16 


Scotland 

Trinket 

Lula 


'6 
11 


Clingstone 


Edwin Thorne 


11 


Daniel Lambert 

Jay-eye-see 


Geo. Wilkes 

Dictator 


8 
14 



Of the foregoing, Prospero, Dame Trot and Elaine have 
the same sire and dam; Nutwood and Maud S. are half- 
brother and sister; Mambrino Gift and Scotland are both 
out of Waterwitch — the former by a six-year-old trotting 
sire and the latter by a fifteen - year - old thoroughbred. 
Woodbine at eight years old produced Woodford Mam- 
brino by a horse of eighteen, and when herself sixteen she 
produced Wedgewood by a five-year-old stalHon. Hamble- 
tonian got Dexter, his best son, at eight years old; Nettie, 
his next fastest by the record, when he was sixteen, and 
Orange Girl, who comes next, when he was twenty-one. 
Volunteer got St. Juhen {2-ll}£) at twelve years, Gloster 
(2:17) at nine, and Huntress (2:20^) at seven. 



162 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

PERCENTAGE OF FOALS TO MARES SERVED. 

Still another question of great interest to horse-breeders 
is this: What is the actual average iDercentage of live foals 
that a given stallion will get under average circumstances? 
In other words: What percentage of foals must a stallion 
get to entitle him to be classed as a reasonably sure foal- 
getter? And upon this there is often much loose assertion 
without any real array of facts to back it up. It is to the 
interest of stalhon-keepers to make the largest possible 
showing in this respect; hence they often talk at random, 
and not infrequently misstate facts. Perhaps in most cases 
actual falsehoods are not stated; but the parties do not care 
to know the exact truth lest they may be compelled by self- 
interest to state an untruth. Hence they find it convenient 
never to make an exact estimate, and content themselves by 
saying: "Oh, he got nearly everything with foal." Now, 
from a very extensive correspondence with reliable breeders 
who keep accurate accounts of results, as well as from my 
own observation, based upon an experience of thirty years 
with many different horses, I am decidedly of opinion that 
the average indicated in the table of the get of Rysdyk's 
Hambletonian is considerably above the general average of 
stallions in this country. 

But this question is removed beyond the realms of con- 
jecture by the recorded results in the government breeding 
studs of Germany. I give herewith a table which was com- 
piled by myself a few years ago from the statistics of horse- 
breeding in the government studs of Germany, as given 
by the late Hon. J. H. Klippart in his report to the Ohio 
State Board of Agriculture. These statistics run back to 
1859, and include all the intervening years up to 1874, except 
1869, in which are shown the results at eleven different 
points. The first column under each locality named shows 



STALLIONS, BROOD MAEES AND YOUNG FOALS. 163 

the number of stallions employed for that year; the second 
gives the average number of mares served by each horse, 
expressed in whole numbers and decimals; the third gives 
the percentage of mares served that proved in foal, and the 
fourth gives the percentage of mares served that produced 
live foals. The table is full of interest, and may be studied 
by horse-breeders with profit. It will be observed that the 
percentage of mares that proved in foal, as well as the per- 
centage of live foals dropped, varies considerably in the 
different establishments. The highest percentage of mares 
in foal Avas at the great Trakehnen establishment, in 1860, 
when the average was 80.2; and here we also find the high- 
est average throughout the entire series of years. But we 
find the average running as low as 40 per cent in 1874, at 
Wickrath, with only 33.3 per cent of live foals, while several 
localities report as high as 62.6 of live foals. It would be 
interesting to know the causes which produced the great 
differences in these averages, and why it is that the stall- 
ions in the Trakehnen estabhshment were so much surer, 
or else a smaller percentage of the mares barren, than at 
at Wickrath and some others? But the average result ob- 
tained from this great number of stallions and mares for so 
long a period may safely be accepted as establishing a gen- 
eral law or rule that can be depended upon under like cir- 
cumstances. (The tables above referred to will be found on 
the two following pages.) 

Taking the entire career of all the establishments re- 
ported from 1859 down to 1874, with an average of over 
1,000 staUions and 42,000 mares per year, as above stated, 
we find the results as follows: 

Average percentage of mares in foal 07.7 

Average percentage of live foals dropped 53.3 

Average percentage of mares aborted or miscarried 4:8 

Average percentage of mares dying or not accounted for 9.(5 



164 



A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 



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166 A TEEATISE ON HOKSE-BREEDING. 

If the foregoiDg may be accepted as the general rule, we 
may state that the average stallion will make as much 
money for his owner by standing at $10 the season, as he 
will at $14.75 to insurs a mare with foal, or $18.75 to insure 
a living foal; and that a horse that can show 53 living foals 
to 100 mares served, is an average foal-getter. Whether 
these figures will apply exactly to horse-breeding as man- 
aged in this country or not is of course not definitely 
known; but they are so nearly in accord with the results of 
my own experience and observation that I have no hesita- 
tion in accepting them as substantially correct. 

MANAGEMENT OF THE STALLION AFTER THE SEASON CLOSES. 

The condition of the stallion for the next season's busi- 
ness will depend largely upon the manner in which he is 
kept from the close of the present one until the next season 
commences. In most cases the period from the 1st of 
October to the 1st of March is one in which the stallion is 
not called upon to do duty in the stud, and usually but 
little is done after July 1. It is a period of rest, of recu- 
peration from the drain upon the functions of the sexual 
organs which service in the stud has required; but it should 
not be a season of pampered and overfed indolence, as is 
too often the case. When it is convenient to do so, the very 
best possible treatment that can be resorted to during this 
period is to use the stallion at light work. If a draft horse 
that has been— as they all ought to be— broken to work, let 
him be driven moderately by the side of a quiet mare or 
gelding, and worked regularly up to the 1st of February, 
and fed enough grain to keep him strong and healthy, but 
not fat. Oats will be much better food for him than corn; 
but if it is found that he is becoming too thin, or if the 
work is comparatively heavy, corn may be used part of the 



STALLIONS, BROOD MAEES AND YOUNG FOALS. 167 

time with good results. If the stallion is a trotter or a 
roadster by aU means driv^e him on the road. If you can 
use him regularly as a business horse so much the better; 
and, as in the case of the draft stallion, feed him enough t J 
keep him strong and hearty, and work him right along, as 
though you intended that he should earn his living. This 
I am satisfied from experience is the best treatment for 
staUions of any breed, and will result not only in bringing 
the horses to the beginning of the next season in better 
condition than any other, but the probabilities are that a 
horse so treated will get more and better foals than one that 
is not worked during this period. 

But in very many cases, and especially in large breeding 
estabhshments, and with thoroughbred stallions, the course 
recommended above is practically out of the question. The 
next best thing, then, if the horse must perforce remain m 
comparative idleness during the period mentioned, is to 
provide him with a large paddock-the larger the better 
always-and let him have the run of it at all times during 
pleasant weather, stabhng him only at nights and during 
storms; and, when kept under these conditions, it will be 
best to dispense almost entirely with grain food of all 
kinds. A run to grass during the late faU, if it can pos- 
sibly be pro^^ded, will be one of the very best things that 
can be had; but this will rarely be the case. The main 
rehance in most cases must be good hay; but I very greatly 
prefer corn-fodder when it can be had, as it furnishes a 
complete change of diet from what the horse has been 
accustomed to-a change that will prove highly beneficial 
to the general health of the horse. It reconstructs him, as 
it were, and makes a new horse of him, after a few months 
of such treatment, and is certainly the next best thing to 
the run at grass, before recommended. But while he is 



16S A TREATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

kept on this food due attention must be paid to his bowels 
lest he should become constipated — a condition that can 
usually be prevented or remedied, should it occur, by the 
use of an occasional bran mash. 

The necessity for this change in diet from grain to coarse 
and bulky food, hke hay or corn-fodder, is increased in pro- 
portion to the degree of confinement to which the horse 
must be subjected. There is nothing that will so soon 
destroy the health and vigor of the horse, and especially of 
his genital organs, as close confinement and high feeding; 
and the man who expects to keep his horse in show-condi- 
tion the year round will find that he has undertaken a diffi- 
cult job. It will work in some cases for a year or two; but, 
like constant indulgence in intoxicating liquors in man, it 
will, in the end, sap the strongest constitution. A strong, 
vigorous horse may be able to withstand the deleterious 
influence for a few years, but it is only a question of time 
with the best. 

EFFECT OF CASTRATION ON STALLIONS. 

It may be proper to supplement what I have written 
upon the management of the stallion by a few remarks con- 
cerning the effect of castration and the time at which it 
should be performed. It frequently happens that it is 
found desirable to castrate a stallion after he has performed 
several seasons of service in the breeding stud, but many 
owners are deterred from doing so from mistaken notions 
as to the dangers of the operation and its probable effect 
upon the temperament of the horse. So far as the danger 
is concerned it is very slight with any horse in good health 
and not enfeebled by age, if performed in pleasant weather 
and by one competent to do the work properly; and the 
idea that castrating a stallion after he has arrived at ma- 



STALLIONS, BEOOD MAKES AND YOtJNG FOALS. 169 

ture years will make him dull, sluggish and lazy, is alto- 
gether erroneous. Such displays of animation as are ex- 
cited purely by his sexual desires will of course be wanting, 
but aside from these little change in his temperament will 
be noticed. Any horse that is kept closely stabled and 
given but little exercise, as is the case with most stallions, 
will, when brought out, show a playful disposition; but 
when put at regular work much of this will disappear. 
"Very few horses are gelded on the European continent, and 
yet the stallions that are used for work are found to be as 
tractable and quiet as geldings would be under similar cir- 
cumstances. 

Stallions are usually greatly superior to mares and geld- 
ings in courage. It is a rare thing to find a stallion that is 
"skittish," or easily scared. In this particular castration 
produces a great change in most horses. The horse that, as 
a stallion, was not afraid of anything, could not be fright- 
ened, and was never known to shy or run away from any ob- 
ject, often becomes a timid, flighty creature when gelded. 
The stallion in a herd of wild horses appears to consider 
himself the protector of the herd, and, instead of flying at the 
approach of danger, is rather disposed to stand his ground, 
and in many cases even to act on the aggressive, and never 
deigns to fly until the females of his herd are in motion. 
This same cool indifference to danger appears to attach to 
the domesticated stallion, and makes him much less liable 
than a mare or gelding to take fright and shy or run away. 

It is the opinion of most experienced breeders that keep- 
ing a horse entire has a tendency to develop his shoulders; 
and it certainly does increase the size of the neck. It also 
gives a different expression to the head, so that the expe- 
rienced horseman can usually distinguish between a stall- 
ion and gelding, simply by seeing the heads, almost as 
12 



170 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDlNCt. 

readily as a cattle-dealer can tell a steer from a bull by the 
head and horns. It is also thoiight by most breeders that 
this unusual development of the neck and shoulders in the 
stallion is at the expense of development of the hind 
quarters. 

While it is the usual custom to castrate at two years old, 
if the colt appears to be timid and skittish a greater degree 
of courage will be developed by leaving him entire for a 
longer period. If he is inclined to be vicious the earlier 
the operation is performed the better; and horses, that as 
stallions were so vicious as to be positively dangerous, 
usually become docile and obedient after having been cas- 
trated. 

FIGHTING BETWEEN STALLIONS. 

When several stallions are kept on the same farm or in 
the same stable great care should be taken to prevent them 
from breaking loose and doing serious injury to one another 
by fighting; but in spite of all the usual precautions such 
accidents are liable to occur. I recently read an account of 
a combat of this nature VN^here various means of separating 
the horses were tried in vain, when it was resolved to 
try the lasso. At the first cast one of the stallions was 
securely caught, but it was only after three unsuccessful 
attempts that the other one w^as secured. With a few men 
at each rope the infuriated beasts were easily choked down 
and separated. I have seen several conflicts of this nature, 
and know by experience something of the difficulty and 
danger of attempting to separate the combatants; but this 
is the first instance in which I have heard of the use of the 
lasso, and it occurs to me that it may frequently be found 
to be the very best possible means of accomplishing the 
difficult and dangerous task. The horses must be fearlessly 
approached, however, to sncced even with the lasso; for. 



STAliLIONS, BEOOD MAKES AND YOUNG FOALS. 17l 

while the fight is progressing, they are usually on their 
knees attemijting to bite each other on the legs. The 
noise which attends such a combat is positively terrific, and 
usually paralyzes the spectators with terror. The horses 
rush at each other with a roar, and, when about to come in 
contact, they usually wheel about and receive the shock on 
the haunches. After a few seconds of contact at this point, 
when the roaring is usually most terrible, they again wheel 
about, endeavoring to grasp each other's fore legs with their 
teeth. To ward off this mode of attack each stallion usually 
sinks to his knees, and then the battle begins in earnest. 

When a jack attacks a stallion he almost invariably 
makes for the throat of his antagonist; and when once his 
teeth are closed with a firm grasp there is no means of 
releasing his hold except to lay the infuriated beast sense- 
less by a blow upon the head; and even then mechanical 
appliances often have to be used to unlock the clenched 
jaws. Such a contest as the one last described usually 
results in the death of the stalHon; and when both stallions 
and jacks are kept in the same stable the greatest care 
should be taken to avoid the possibility of a combat 
between them. 

THE BROOD MARE. 

The influence of the dam in the transmission of hered- 
itary qualities is, in my opinion, usually very much under- 
estimated, and it is frequently ignored entirely by horse- 
breeders. Instead of writing or speaking of horses, or 
classing them with reference to the female ancestry, as is 
the custom with cattle-breeders, the female element in the 
pedigree of a horse is almost entirely lost sight of, while to 
the male is given especial prominence. This can not be other 
than a serious mistake; and the man who keeps a worthless 
animal in the breeding stud, simply because he can not 



172 A TKEATISE ON HOKSE-BBEEDING. 

sell her, will not be able to compete with his neighbor who 
reserves the very best mares of his raising for breeding pur- 
poses, even though they both patronize the same stallion. 
The mare certainly exercises as potent an influence upon 
the progeny as the stallion; and while in exceptional cases 
a very inferior one may produce a good foal, yet if we ex- 
amine the records of the trotting turf we shall find that in 
nine cases out of ten, even when the pedigree of the dam 
is unkno^Ti, she was "a great road mare." Greatness 
springs from greatness, and every living thing brings forth 
young after its kind. And especially in the matter of 
soundness do I insist that the mare which is selected for 
the breeding stud should be unobjectionable. There is 
scarcely an ill to which horse-flesh is heir that is not trans- 
missible by inheritance. The precise disease itself may not 
be inherited, but the constitutional weakness that makes 
this or that organ pecuharly susceptible to disease is 
clearly a transmissible quality. No one will pretend to say 
that flatulent colic is an inherited disease; but we have the 
very best of evidence that some horses are more subject to 
this disease than others, and that they transmit this tend- 
ency to their offspring. Acute laminitis may not be a con- 
stitutional infirmity; but the peculiar formation of joint 
that falls an easy prey to this disease is as clearly trans- 
missible as are color and form. 

CAUSES OF BAEKENNESS IN BKOOD MAEES. 

I have spoken at considerable length elsewhere of the 
dangers to stallions from overfeeding. All that was there 
said concerning the harmfulness of this practice as applied 
to stallions might well be repeated here with increased 
emjjhasis. It is undoubtedly one of the most frequent 
causes of barrenness, and the dangers attending parturition 



STALLIONS, BEOOD MAKES AND YOUNG FOALS. 173 

are more than trebled in cases of excessively fat animals. 
Deaths from parturient fever, or milk fever, are almost 
unknown in mares that are kept actively at work and are 
in only moderate flesh at the time of foaling. A case well 
illustrating this i^oint came under my own notice recently 
of a farmer who had four mares that dropped foals in one 
season. The mares were all very fat and had been kept in 
high show-condition for a year or more. One of the mares 
died of parturient fever, and he lost three out of the four 
foals. 

I have had occasion heretofore to quote from that most 
excellent authority, Prof. Law, of Cornell University. A 
few years ago he prepared, at my request, for publication in 
a journal which was then under my control, an article on 
the causes of difficult impregnation and barrenness, and 
from this article I quote so much as relates to brood mares: 

Females that are not put to the male until long after they have 
reached maturity are often difficult to impregnate for the first 
time. This is frequently noticed in mares that have spent a 
good part of a lifetime at hard work; and in these cases it may 
often happen that the long inactivity of the generative organs 
has produced an inaptitude for procreation. As a rule the dis- 
used generative organs fail to acquire that permanent develop- 
ment which attends on habitual impregnation; and even after a 
single conception a long period of non-breeding leads to a strik- 
ing diminution of the womb and passages. 

But difficulty is often experienced in securing the impregna- 
tion of heifers that have reached full maturity but are neither 
old nor hard- worked, and the same difficulty is met with in com- 
paratively young and idle mares. In such cases the trouble may 
often depend on undue sexual excitement, which leads to a spas- 
modic and rigid closure of the neck of the womb during copula- 
tion, or to excessive expulsive contractions of that organ and the 
vagina, and the rejection of the semen before impregnation has 
been effected. 

Another occasional cause of sterility in such cases is the de- 



174 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

generation of the fallopian tubes, which have become blocked 
by the abnormal fatty product, and no longer allow of the de- 
scent and impregnation of the ovum. 

The obvious preventive of these conditions is to maintain the 
functional activity of the organs from the time of full maturity 
onward. It is a fundamental law of organic nature that struct- 
ures and functions are developed in ratio with their use, so long 
as this is kept within natural bounds, and the generative system 
is no exception to this law. The cow or mare that is bred every 
year is a more certain breeder than the one which is allowed to 
skip three or four years between successive conceptions. The 
faulty conditions resulting from this deferred or irregular breed- 
ing will be individually considered below. 

There is not a Scylla but has its Charybdis. We should keep 
this in mind in avoiding the danger just mentioned, and not be 
driven to the opposite extreme of breeding from very young 
females, whose development and stamina will be impaired by 
the constant drain upon it for the nourishment of the coming 
progeny. It is notorious that females who breed too early fail to 
attain the full size and development of their family. * * * 
Females should not be put to the male until they are at least 
verging on maturity. Above all, the system of breeding from 
very immature animals should not be continued in the same line 
from generation to generation, as that can only tend to accumu- 
late and intensify the evil. In the exceptional case of a very for- 
ward animal, where an early conception is especially desirable, 
and where the young dam is either not allowed to suckle her 
offspring, or is allowed to skip the following year without breed- 
ing, the course may sometimes be profitable; but, as a rule, 
breeding from immature animals should be avoided, for the 
reasons above mentioned. 

An excess of rich and stimulating food, and consequent ple- 
thora, is a common cause of non-breeding. In some such cases 
there is an accumulation of fat, as referred to above; but this 
condition is seen also in rapidly induced plethora, and where no 
time has been allowed for the development of fatty degeneration. 
Among others, the following conditions will serve to explain 
these: With an extra tension of the liquid inside the blood-ves- 
sels the tendency is to secretion rather than absorption; the rich 
and stimulating quality of the circulating blood maintains an 



STALLIONS, BKOOD MAEES AND YOUNG FOALS. 175 

unusual activity in the glands of the womb, and the result of 
these combined causes is an excessive production of uterine 
mucus, among which the semen is expelled before impregnation 
can be effected. The rich blood is, further, a stimulant to the 
muscular walls of the womb and vagina, and leads to their con- 
traction under slight exciting causes, so that here again we have 
an efficient cause of the rejection of the semen and its failure to 
impregnate. 

The correction for this state of things is to reduce the richness 
and stimulating qualities of the blood. Many accomplish this 
by bleeding the plethoric animal before putting her to the male. 
This often succeeds, for it promptly reduces the pressure of the 
blood within the vessels, and, by determining the absorption of 
liquid from all available sources, dilutes that fluid and renders it 
less stimulating. There is one objection to this course — that a 
moderate abstraction of blood from a system full of constitu- 
tional vigor acts as a stimulus to a still more rapid formation 
of blood for the purpose of supplying the waste, and thus the 
present success may be gained at the expense of a still greater 
and perhaps dangerous plethora in the near future. 

A preferable course is to place the animal on a spare diet for 
some weeks before she is to be put to the male, and to further 
deplete the system by the administration of one or two doses of 
laxative medicine. For the mare, four or five drachms of Bar- 
badoes aloes; but care should be taken that the laxative be given 
early enough to avoid having it still operating when the animal 
is put to the male. 

In certain animals and breeds there is a responsive activity of 
the generative organs, independently of plethora or other diseased 
condition, and in animals of this kind impregnation often fails 
to take place, because of the ready rejection of the semen. Such 
excitement is, of course, greatest during the most active stage of 
heat, and lessens as the period approaches its end. Animals of 
this kind may often be got to breed if put to the male when the 
heat is passing off, and when they will only just receive him, 
though it would have proved a failure had they been served while 
at the height of the sexual passion. 

Closure of the mouth of the womb may often happen from 
the unnatural excitability just referred to, the muscle which 
closes the neck of the womb being so rigidly contracted that it 



176 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BKEBDING. 

is impossible for the semen to enter. This may be easily cor- 
rected in the large animals, by steady pressure with the fingers 
and thumb, drawn into the form of a cone, until the tension 
gives way and the hand passes freely into the womb. Just before 
putting to the male, let the oiled hand be introduced into the 
vagina until it reaches the round, projecting, puckered promi- 
nence — the neck of the womb — at the farther end of the canal. 
In the center of this projection will be felt the depression leading 
into the opening. Into this it may be only possible at first to in- 
troduce one finger; this is to be followed by two, three, and 
finally by the four fingers and thumb, brought together into a 
point so as to form a cone. When the passage has been suffi- 
cently dilated the animal should be at once served by the male, 
as delay may allow the relaxed muscle to recover its tone and 
close the opening as at first. The same end may be attained by 
introducing an instrument, with smooth, rounded blades, fash- 
ioned after the manner of a glove-stretcher, and gradually dilat- 
ing the passage. It is an easy process in the mare, on account 
of the shortness and dilatability of the mouth of the womb. 

Acute disease of the ovaries may prevent concei:)tion in two 
different ways: 1st. It may prevent the development of the 
ovum or germ of the future animal; and, 2d, it may cause such 
sympathetic excitement and contractions in the womb that the 
ovum can not be fertilized and retained. 

1st. The faihire to develop ova is met with when the whole of 
both ovaries are involved in certain diseases. When, for exam- 
ple, these organs have undergone complete fatty degeneration, 
or when they are the seat of extensive cysts, tuberculous deposits 
or cancer. The fatty change is extremely common in the im- 
proved breeds of cattle, sheep and swine. The tuberculous and 
cancerous taints run in certain families, and are to be mainly 
obviated by rejecting from breeding such as are strongly pre- 
disposed. To prevent fatty degeneration we should avoid excess 
of all foods that are especially rich in oil, or that tend greatly 
to the production ol fat. Among these may be named Indian 
corn, linseed cake, sorghum and beet. The females should fur- 
ther have a full allowance of exercise to keep the lungs in full 
activity and favor the oxidation of the fat-producing elements of 
the food. Absolute rest in hot, close buildings is to be espe- 
cially avoided. 



STALLIONS, BKOOD MAKES AND YOUNG FOALS. 177 

2d. Sympathetic Excitement of the Womb.— When one ovary, 
or only a portion of an ovary, is affected, the ovum may still be 
produced; but such is the sympathetic excitement of the womb 
that the fertilizing semen or the impregnated ovum is invariably 
rejected. Cases of this kind usually come in heat at irregular 
intervals, and, in some instances, sexual excitement is almost 
continuous, so that the subject will neither breed nor fatten. 
They can usually be recognized by their history and by the ex- 
amination of the ovaries by the hand introduced through the 
straight gut (rectum). Unless in the case of slight congestions, 
or other removable disorder, such ovarian disease can only be 
treated by the removal of the diseased ovary, and, if both are 
affected, the animal is necessarily rendered barren. The opera- 
tion does not differ from ordinary spaying of a healthy animal. 

The tortuous tubes through which the ovum passes from the 
ovary to the womb are frequently the seat of fatty degeneration, 
so that they become at once blocked by the morbid product and 
incapable of their normal contractions, and the ovum fails to 
reach the matrix. When remediable at all, which is only in the 
earlier stages and slighter forms of the change, this is to be met 
by the measures advised for fatty degeneration of the ovaries. 

Nearly all active diseases of the womb unfit it for retaining 
the product of conception. Tumors, inflammations and catarrhs, 
or mucopurulent discharges, usually lead to the destruction or 
expulsion of the semen or the product of conception, so that in 
all alike the restoration of a healthy condition of the womb is a 
prerequisite to breeding. We can not enter further into this 
subject at present than to say that, in simple catarrhal inflamma- 
tion, benefit may be derived from a daily injection of one-half 
drachm of sulphate of zinc, one-half drachm of carbolic acid, 
one ounce of glycerine and one quart of water— to be used tepid. 
Certain kinds of food prevent conception, or, what is equiva- 
lent, lead to an early abortion. Among these may be named 
ergoted grasses, smutty wheat and corn, musty grain, and ali- 
ments which produce scouring, indigestions, colics and diseases 
of the urinary organs. In the same category may be included 
the free drinking of iced waters when thirsty. 

It has been frequently noticed that the persistent breeding of 
near relations has resulted in a sexual incompatibility, which 
rendered a male and female of the same family incapable of 



178 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

breeding together, though each was perfectly fertile with stran- 
gers. When we must breed close this should be guarded against 
by having two or more branches of the same family kept in a 
different locality and climate, the influence of which may thus be 
obtained without changing the blood. 

THE PEODUCTIVE PEEIOD IN BROOD MARES. 

The most fertile period in the mare's life is usually at 
from five to fifteen years of age. They may in exceptional 
cases be put to breeding as early as at two years old, but 
I do not recommend such a course, as it seriously interferes 
with a symmetrical development. If from any cause a two- 
year-old filly has been served by the stallion and become 
pregnant it will be every way better to let her pass over her 
third year without breeding, so that she will not produce 
her second foal until she is five years old; but a well-devel- 
oped three-year-old may be safely put to the horse, and she 
may then be kept at breeding without intermission so long 
as she remains fertile. At about twelve years the reproduc- 
tive powers of some mares will begin to wane, but a large 
proportion of them are quite as reliable breeders up to 
about fifteen years of age as at any earlier period, especially 
if they have been kept at breeding from their maturity. 
Above this age they usually become more uncertain; and 
regular breeders well up in "the teens" are comparatively 
rare. There have been, however, well-authenticated in- 
stances of mares up to twenty-six years of age producing 
healthy, living foals. Old Fanny Cook, the dam of the 
noted trotting stallions Daniel Lambert and Woodward's 
Ethan Allen, produced fifteen foals, and dropped twins 
(one of which is still living) when she was twenty-two years 
old. The great English race mare Pocahontas lived to be 
thirty-three years of age and produced fifteen foals; her last, 
Auracaria, being dropped when she was twenty-five years 



STALLIONS, BEOOD MARES AND YOUNG FOALS. 179 

old, and, contrary to what might have been expected, this 
daughter of old age herself became a great brood mare, 
producing, among others, the grand race horses Chamant 
and Eayon d'Or. Many other very remarkable cases have 
been reported to me— one by Mr. G. W. Henry, of Burhng- 
ton, la., of a mare, still living at the date of his letter (July, 
1882), which then, at twenty-six years of age, had produced 
nineteen foals, and was supposed to be again in foal.* 
Several other cases have come under my observation where 
mares have produced from fourteen to eighteen foals. But 
these are exceptional cases, and no breeder can safely base 
his calculations upon them. 

I think most experienced breeders will agree that a suf- 
ficient amount of exercise and work or training to thor- 
oughly develop the physical powers of both sire and dam is 
desirable; and, having this point in view, I would not rec- 
ommend that a filly be relegated to the breeding stud until 
she has been trained and raced for a year or two, if race 
horses are desired. With ordinary road horses and farm 
horses the young mares may be used sufficiently to effect 
the same object while they are being bred. I am a firm 
believer in the tendency of animal life to adapt itself to its 
surroundings and conditions; consequently, I beUeve in 
working the sires and dams that are to get and produce 
work horses, and in trotting or running those that are to 
produce trotters and runners. It is a law of nature which 
should not be ignored. The famous old pacing mare Poca- 
hontas produced her best foal (Mr. Bonner's trotting mare 
Pocahontas, record 2:26^;4) about five months after pacing 
the greatest race of her life. Blink Bonny, the dam of 
Blair Athol, ran many races in her younger days. The same 

*The Bkeeder's Gazette, Vol. II, p. 71. 



180 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

is true of Seclusion the dam of Hermit, and of Marigold 
the dam of Doncaster, and of Little Lady the dam of 
Camballo, and of Pocahontas the dam of Stockwell, Kata- 
plan, King Tom, etc. But it is needless to specify further; 
the history of the turf furnishes incontestable evidence of 
the correctness of the propositions announced at the begin- 
ning of this paragraph. 

On the other hand, I would expect but little, as a brood 
mare, from one that had been kept continuously on the turf 
or at hard, wearing labor, without breeding until past the 
prime of life. The sexual powers must necessarily become 
dwarfed, if not entirely lost, from long-continued disuse 
after having reached maturity; and mares so treated have 
usually proved barren, although some notable exceptions 
to this rule may be named. But exceptions are not safe 
guides for the breeder to follow. It is the general average 
of results that marks the road to success in any given line 
of business. 

TIME OF FOALING AND PERIOD OF GESTATION. 

When the time of foaling approaches the mare should 
be turned loose in a large and strongly-made box-stall, or 
if the weather is mild, in a lot or paddock. Everything 
should be removed from the stall that would be likely to 
entangle or injure the colt in its struggles to get on its feet. 
There should be no openings under the manger or elsewhere 
into which, in its struggles, it might chance to force itself— 
many dead colts are taken every year from such traps as 
these. If the weather is warm it is decidedly better to give 
the mare the run of a good-sized lot, for it is noticeable that 
when parturition approaches they usually have a decided 
aversion to confinement. If confined in a stall or small 
paddock the inclosure should be so secure as to prevent 
any attempts at breaking out, as these would be liable to 



stalijIons, brood maees and young rOAIiS. 181 

result in injury to the mare, and possibly to the foal. The 
writer recalls one occasion in his own experience where a 
favorite mare, that was thought to be near the time of foal- 
ing, was brought from her accustomed pasture and placed in 
the stable for the night on account of a probable storm. 
The mare was left, as was supposed, securely fastened in her 
box-stall, but to my surprise the next morning she was found 
in her accustomed pasture with a foal by her side. Al- 
though usually quiet — never before known to jump a fence 
— she had broken open the door of her stall and jumped 
two good fences to get back to her accustomed haunts be- 
fore dropping her foal. 

The average periods of gestation in the mare is popu- 
larly placed at eleven months, but a careful comparison of 
statistics gathered from the books of several extensive 
horse-breeders of my acquaintance, whom I know to be ac- 
curate and painstaking in their methods, places the average 
period at about 340 days. It is a popular belief that male 
foals are carried longer than females, but the statistics do 
not bear out this conclusion. The observations of Dr. W. 
H. Winter, of Princeton, HI., covering seventy-two cases, 
make the average period for males about 341 days, and for 
females 338 days, the longest being 370 and the shortest 317 
days. Mr. M. A. Brown, from thirty foals in one year, found 
the average to be slightly greater for males than females, 
while on the following year, from thirty-two foals, the fe- 
males were carried longest. He also reports a perfectly well 
authenticated case where a two-year-old half-blood Perche- 
ron filly was bred to an imported Percheron stallion and 
produced a strong, healthy horse foal at just 300 days.* 
Mr. Brown has no doubt as to the accuracy of this state- 



* The Beeeder's Gazette, Vol. V, p. 556. 



102 A TEEATISE ON HOKSE-BEEEDING. 

ment, the filly having been served but once. This is the 
shortest period that I have ever known to be well authenti- 
cated, although immature foals at shorter periods have been 
reported. Veterinary writers generally place the extremes 
at from 300 to 400 days, but the longest period that has been 
reported to me was by a correspondent at Chatham, O., who 
states that a mare belonging to him was served May 7, and 
did not drop her foal until May 17 of the following year, 
being a period of one year and ten days.* 

In view of the indefiniteness of the period of gestation 
the mare should be closely watched, as there are certain 
signs of the near approach of parturition which rarely fail. 
The udder frequently becomes greatly distended sometime 
before foaling, but the " teats " seldom fill out full and 
plump to the end more than a day or two before the foal is 
dropped. Another sign, which rarely precedes the dropping 
of the foal more than a week or ten days, is a marked 
shrinking or falling away of the muscular parts on the top 
of the buttocks back of the hips. In some cases, however, 
the foal may be dropped without any of these premonitory 
signs. I remember a case on my father's farm, where a roan 
mare that had been purchased, and was not supposed to be 
in foal, was worked hard at the plow up to about the middle 
of May. She was fed and turned out to pasture one 
evening, as was the custom, after having been worked hard 
all day, and nothing unusual was noticed in her appearance. 
The udder was not perceptibly larger than usual, but next 
morning we found her with a good strong foal by her 
side. She was a sorry nurse, however, and the foal lived 
only a few weeks, dying from " scours," brought on by 
careless feeding. 

*The Breeder's Gazette, Vol. I, p. 735. 



feTALliiONS, BROOD MARES AND YOUNG FOALS. 183 

When the mare is a valuable one, and the prospective 
foal is looked for with a good deal of interest, it is quite 
well to watch her closely, as many valuable animals have 
been lost which by a little attention at the right moment 
might have been saved. 

Moderate work is not only harmless but positively 
beneficial to mares in foal, provided proper care be taken 
not to overload them. It is certainly better than keeping 
them tied up in the stable, or permitting them to run at 
large in the yards or fields with many other horses. In 
the former case they suffer from want of exercise, and, in 
the latter, they are exposed to numberless accidents, result- 
ing from racing, playing or fighting with each other. In 
my own experience in horse-breeding, more abortions have 
resulted from mares being kicked or otherwise injured by 
other horses when in the pastures than from all other 
causes put together. Exercise is essential to good health; 
and, when moderate work is given— care being taken to 
avoid overloading, and proper attention being paid to the 
shoeing, so that there shall be no danger of strains from 
slipping— the mare will get plenty of exercise without the 
exposure consequent upon ruiming at large with other 
horses. If proper care be taken the mare can safely be 
used in the ordinary work of the farm up to the very hour 
of foahng; but as this time approaches it is important that 
the weight be not heavy nor the pace rapid. After the foal 
is dropped the mare ought to have at least two to three days 
of rest and quiet, although many farmers who are hurried 
with their work and can not very weU dispense with the 
services of the mare in the field, find no evil results follow- 
ing from working the mare moderately from the day after 
the foal is dropped. This practice, however, is not to be 
commended. 



184 A TKEATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS AS TO FOOD AND NURSING. 

Many mares are at best but poor nurses. Under the 
head of "Feeding the young foal" will be found some 
suggestions as to the best food to be used in case the milk 
of the dam is not sufficient, but the food of the dam may be 
made to greatly influence her yield of milk. The foods that 
have been found useful in increasing the flow of milk in the 
cow will have the same efPect upon the milk of the mare. 
Wheat bran is especially valuable for this purpose if mixed 
vnth other and more nutritious foods. It may be made into 
a sort of slop and fed with ground oats or rye, mixed with 
cut hay or sheaf oats. Plenty of good fresh grass is one of 
the very best of aids to healthy and abundant nutrition for 
both mare and foal. Whatever grain ration is used I would 
recommend that it be ground and fed wet, mixed with cut 
straw or hay. 

When mares are worked while suckling it is better that 
the foal should be left in the stable and that the mare be 
taken to the foal for it to suck at least three times during 
the day, ample time being given for her to cool out thor- 
oughly before the foal has access to her, otherwise a gorge 
of the overheated milk may produce serious disturbances 
in the digestive organs of the foal. Many farmers, however, 
find little inconvenience from permitting the foals, espe- 
cially when quite young, to accompany the dams to the 
field and follow them while at their work. This gives them 
an opportunity to empty the udder of the mare as often as 
it may be deemed desirable, and obviates ail danger from 
overgorging that arises when the mare and foal are sepa- 
rated. 

FEEDING THE YOUNG FOAL. 

It sometimes happens that the milk of the dam is quite 
insufficient to promote healthy, vigorous growth in the 



STALMONS, BKOOD MAKES AND YOUNG FOAIiS. 185 

young foal, and occasionally it becomes necessary to raise a 
foal entirely independent of the dam. In such cases the 
best possible adjunct or substitute for the milk of the dam 
is cow's milk. It should be sweetened at first, as the milk 
of the mare is sweeter than that of the cow. A little patient 
effort will soon result in teaching the colt to drink milk 
readily, but be careful not to give him too much at a time. 
A half pint is quite sufficient for a colt two or three days 
old; but the ration should be repeated often— not less than 
six times a day, the idea being to give the colt really all it 
will drink, but to feed so often that it will not require very 
much at a time. As the colt grows older the amount should 
be increased, and grass, with oats, should be added as soon 
as the colt is old enough to eat. No ration is better for a 
colt than cow's milk with these adjuncts. After the colt is 
two months old skimmed milk should be substituted for 
the fresh cow's milk. Should there be any trouble from 
constipation it will be well to add about one pint of oil- 
meal per day to the ration; in fact, I would recommend 
the use of oil-meal in all cases, as it furnishes a large pro- 
portion of muscle and bone-forming food. If the oil-meal 
is not obtainable flax-seed may be used. A half -pint of flax- 
seed boiled with two quarts of bran will make two good 
feeds for a colt, and this ration may profitably be alternated 
with the other food. Indeed, it will be well in all cases 
where, from lack of an abundance of milk of the dam, or 
from scanty nutrition of any kind, the foal is low in flesh, to 
early supply the deficiency with a good allowance of cow's 
milk in addition to what it gets from the dam. The effect 
of such a ration upon the growth and condition is wonder- 
ful, and in all cases where the foal is likely otherwise to enter 
winter low in flesh I can not too highly recommend its use. 
A quart of milk morning and evening, in addition to the 
13 



186 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

grain ration, will be sufficient; and if it be sweetened a little 
at first the colt will take to it all the more readily, as the 
milk of the mare is much sweeter than that of the cow. 

WEANING THE EOAIj. 

When the colt is to be taken from the dam it should be 
tied in an adjoining stall, with the partition so open that 
they are in plain view of each other, and the food of the 
mare should be reduced to a very small ration of dry oats 
and hay. When her udder becomes so full as to cause her 
uneasiness a part of the milk should be drawn off, but she 
should not be milked dry. This first milking may be done 
by the colt itself, but afterwards it should be done by hand, 
as the milk in the drying-off process soon becomes unfit for 
the colt; and, besides, the drying off will be more speedily 
accomplished than when the colt is occasionally permitted 
to suck. After the milk has entirely dried up the mare and 
her foal may be separated, and she may safely be turned 
out to grass. 

Skimmed milk may still be given to the colt, especially if 
it is not in good condition to enter the winter; but clean, 
sound oats, ground or unground, constitute the best of all 
grain foods for the colt. I prefer to have them ground; 
and as cold weather approaches, about one-fourth in weight 
of corn-meal may profitably be added, as it helps to lay on 
fat and keeps up the animal heat. A little oil-meal— say a 
pint a day — may also profitably be given with the oats for 
some time after weaning. Don't be afraid of feeding too 
liberally. More colts are injured the first six months after 
weaning by too scanty a supply of food than from the 
opposite extreme. As soon as the mare and foal can be 
separated the foal should have the run of a good pasture, 
as there is no food better than grass, no medicine so good 



staltjIons, bkood maees and young foals. 187 

as exercise, and no exercise so profitable to young animals 
as that which may be taken just when they feel like it. 

EFFECT OF EXERCISE ON DEVELOPMENT. 

I wish to call especial attention to the importance of 
open air exercise as absolutely essential to a healthy, sym- 
metrical development of bone, muscle and the ^dtal organs. 
The idea prevails to a very great extent among practical 
farmers that high feeding and good care will cause an 
otherwise good colt to grow up into an unsound, ''weedy" 
horse; and, on the other hand, that there is nothing like 
"roughing it" to .develop hardiness and endurance. I am of 
opinion that the practical results in many cases have been 
such as to warrant this belief. Not that there is anything 
bad in generous and liberal feeding, nor good in starvation 
and exposure; but that with the latter the colt always has 
pure air and abundant exercise, without which there can be 
no sound and healthy development. This I regard as a 
factor in horse-raising second only in importance to that of 
blood, which is purely an inherited quality, and for lack of 
which no after-care can ever compensate. 

Abundant opportunity for exercise in the fresh, jjure air, 
uncontaminated by stable odors, is an absolute essential to 
a healthy development in all young animals. It is not suffi- 
cient that the colt be led out at stated intervals for exercise. 
He needs the opportunity to romp and play, that he may ex- 
tend his muscles to their utmost capacity, expand his lungs 
to their very depths, and send the blood coursing through 
every vein with fiery vigor. All this is essential to a 
healthy, robust development of heart and lungs, and bone 
and muscle; and nowhere can it be obtained in so great a 
degree of perfection as in the freedom of the open field. 
A colt that is kept in the stall and fed highly on heating 



188 A TEEATISE ON HOKSE-BKEEDING. 

grains is seldom afforded an opportunity for this health- 
giving exercise. Like the tender hot-house plant, he grows 
up deficient in stamina and vigor — a victim to his artificial 
surroundings, which do violence to every want of his 
nature. To the exhilarating race in the fields and past- 
ures—which colts as well as boys so heartily enjoy — he is 
a stranger; and he grows up a stiff, clumsy brute, with only 
a tithe of the development of lungs and other vital organs 
that he might have possessed under more favorable circum- 
stances. 

This I believe to be all there is of truth in the idea that 
colts brought up roughly make the hardiest horses; and 
there is so much in it that it should attract the careful 
attention of men who have thousands of dollars invested in 
the business of breeding horses. 

But while I plead for this wild freedom in behalf of the 
growing colt I would not lose sight of the fact that gen- 
erous feeding and protection from inclement weather are 
also essential. I condemn in toto the starving process as 
unnecessary and hurtful. A stunted, half-starved animal 
will never attain to so perfect a physical development as one 
that has been well fed and cared for. There is a definite 
period in life allotted to grovsrth, and if during that period 
only a scanty sui^ply of nutriment is afforded a stunted, 
dwarfed animal is the inevitable result, which no amount 
of after-care can remedy. The true policy is to promote 
the growth of the colt by an abundance of nutritious food, 
and to secure a healthy and perfect development of heart 
and lungs, and bone and muscle, by permitting him to 
romp, and race, and play at will. By following this prac- 
tice all there is of good in "roughing it" will be attained, 
and all that is bad or dangerous in generous feeding will 
be avoided. 



stallions, brood mares and young foals. 189 

"breaking" the foal. 
Wherever it is practicable the colt should be broken 
to halter while yet a suckling, and the earlier in hfe this 
process is commenced the more easily will it be accom- 
phshed. He may soon be led by the side of the dam with 
out difficulty, and when once accustomed to being guided 
by the halter it will be an easy matter to lead him any- 
where. He may also be tied by the side of the dam as the 
preliminary step in teaching him to stand quietly when 
hitched alone. The first step in "gentling" a colt is to over- 
come his natural timidity by gradual approaches, and when 
he finds that he has no reason to fear the work is half done. 
All the subsequent lessons given him through all the vari- 
ous steps of breaking and training should be based upon 
this plan of gradual approaches — a species of sapping and 
mining that will subdue the most vicious and tame the 
wildest colt if perseveringly followed. He should be accus- 
tomed to the bridle by means of the "bitting rig" before 
any attempt is made to ride him; and the mounting should 
always be first attempted in the stall or the lot where the 
colt is perfectly famiUar with all the surroundings. When 
it is desired to break him to harness the same principle of 
gentleness and care to avoid giving fright should be prac- 
ticed. Place portions of the harness on him at a time, and 
let it remain on him in his stall until he finds that it will 
not hurt him; then lead him out with the harness on, alone, 
and again by the side of another horse also in harness. 
Accustom him perfectly to the use of the lines, and then let 
him make the acquaintance of the sulky or break-cart. 
Push it along after him; and when he has found that it also 
is harmless get him between the "thills," and finally hitch 
him to it and drive him. It is the most convenient of all 
vehicles for use in breaking colts for driving, as the weight 



190 A TKEATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

is but little, and there is no danger to be apprehended from 
sudden turning around. Many trainers provide themselves 
with a stout two-wheeled vehicle, constructed like a sulky, 
but vrith very heavy "thills," so strong that the colt can 
not possibly break them, let what may happen. Such an 
arrangement is especially desirable for wald or vicious colts 
that have not been "gentled" when young, or for such as 
from improper handling have formed bad habits that must 
be cured. 

THE VIEWS OF DE. REYNOLDS, OF LIVERPOOL. 

In the introduction to Vol. II of the Shire Horse Stud 
Book of Great Britain is a paper upon Horse Breeding, 
which contains so much good, sound, practical instruction, 
that I cannot do my readers a greater service than by sup- 
plementing what I have given on the preceding pages with 
so much of Dr. Keynolds' work as relates to the brood 
mare and the young foal, as follows: 

Fillies served at two years old, and so coming in to profit as 
reproductors at three, will rarely develop into very high-class 
animals, and when it is considered advisable to breed from them 
thus early they should not be subjected to work, beyond that re- 
quired to break them in, until their first foals are a couple of 
months old. The best age to put a mare to the horse is at three 
years old, so that when she is sold in the autumn of her seventh 
year the owner will probably have obtained two foals, the value 
of which, added to the earnings of the mare as a team animal, 
will leave her full sale price to represent the proprietor's profit. 
Subject to the influences previously considered, the alliance of 
strong young mares with aged and robust stallions is the most 
certain method of obtaining a yearly production of good foals. 
Mares that have been worked up to ten or twelve years old in 
towns, and aciiuired at that age for breeding purposes, seldom 
fulfill the desires of the purchaser; by the maintenance of high 
condition for a prolonged period they are rendered prone to 
sterility and if fecundated they are apt to experience difliculties 
in labor. When moderately well nourished, comfortably lodged 



STALLIONS, BKOOD MAEES AND YOUNG FOALS. 191 

and unfatigued by excessive and long-continued labor, mares 
are apt to breed at all seasons of the year, thereby affording the 
owner an opportunity to secure the dropping of his foals at a 
period when the exigencies of team labor are not very pressing, 
and when a fresh and abundant supply of green food can be as- 
sured for the mutual benefit of mare and offspring. Mares which 
are regularly worked, or those having to seek their food in the 
spring from poor pastures, are much more certainly fecundated 
than their idle or stable-fed sisters supplied with rich and 
abundant provender. 

The appearances of that physiological condition termed "oest- 
rum," "heat," "in use," etc., are usually manifested in the mare 
by general signs, and by particular phenomena presented by the 
generative organs. 

The intensity of the objective signs varies very much in 
different individuals; in some all the symptoms are evinced by 
inappetence, increased thirst, agitation, impatience, frequent 
neighing, and efforts to urinate; the vulvae are swollen — the 
lining membrane reddened, and a white glairy discharge issues 
therefrom; in others no signs are recognizable by which the con- 
dition of "heat" can be inferred. Its presence is not apparent 
until the mare is "tried " by a stallion. 

The most opportune time for a matron mare to be again 
served is the ninth day after foaling; for subsequent proof that 
she has conceived to a former service the twentieth or twenty- 
first day is usually selected. Many usages are still had recourse 
to in the endeavor to insure conception by mares that have pre- 
viously shown an indisposition to be fecundated, but the bar- 
barous customs much practiced in former years by ignorant 
persons for the attainment of that object are now happily 
becoming of less frequent occurence. 

Acting upon the knowledge that exercise has the effect of 
provoking the evacuation of the excreta, and also of rendering 
petulant females more tranquil, the Arabs gallop their mares to 
excess, and submit them to the stallion fatigued and inclined for 
rest. The most novel practice in this respect is the administra- 
tion of about two-thirds of a pint of vinegar to the mare imme- 
diately after service. I have no experience of this mode of 
treatment, and I fail to see any physiological reason why it 
should be successful. Complaints of the inf ecundity of a stallion 



192 A TEEATISE ON HOKSE-BKEEDING. 

are ever frequent, and often so when the cause is entirely due to 
the unfit state in which the mare is presented; unless she is 
served at the moment in the plenitude of heat her owner should 
attach no blame to the horse if the essay proves unfruitful. The 
abstraction of blood has in some cases been followed by success- 
ful results; but the most rational practice that can be adopted is 
to reduce the condition of mares, refractory to conception, by 
submitting them to a prolonged course of cooling diet, of which 
corn should form no constituent, and, after completion of the 
act, to leave them in a state of perfect quietude for several hours. 

Sterility in the mare may be due to age or prolonged conti- 
nence, especially where associated with high condition, or it may 
arise from abnormal conformation, or diseases of the womb, or 
the existence of painful wounds, or diseases in the regions of the 
feet; it is, however, usually induced in mares prone to accumu- 
late fat, by a superabundant supply of highly- stimulating food 
and the absence of sufficient work. 

Medicinal treatment or surgical operations in some rare cases 
may cure sterility arising from a suspension of the uterine 
functions or abnormalities of the organ; and the operation of 
neurotomy has been adopted with success upon mares rendered 
sterile by acutely painful foot diseases. The treatment for over- 
plethoric mares must be that of reduction to low, or even poor 
condition. 

With the exception that the venereal excitement usually 
diminishes or disappears, and the animal becomes lazy and 
quiet, the signs that a mare has been impregnated do not become 
apparent for some time, nor is the periodical reappearance of 
"heat" to be regarded as a conclusive evidence of non- 
conception. It is not impossible for oestrum to co-exist with 
impregnation. The inconstancy in appearance of the objective 
symptoms of pregnancy renders that condition but problematical 
(especially in mares which ordinarily show little appearance of 
"oestrum") until the sixth or seventh month, when the foetal 
movements may usually be discerned in the flank, unless manual 
exploration of the uterus by vaginal examination is adopted for 
the purpose of ascertaining whether conception has taken place. 
Valuable as the operation is for determining the state of the 
uterus during the primary months of gestation, it should never 
be employed except in cases of urgent necessity, on account of 



STALLIONS, BEOOD MA.EES AND YOUNG FOALS. 193 

the danger and possible death of the foetus, which may be appre- 
hended to follow its adoption with an irritable mare. 

The period of gestation in the mare occupies, as a rule, from 
330 to 3G0 days, during nearly the whole of which time it is of 
great importance that opportunity is afiforded for a sufficiency 
of daily exercise, especially needful for mares which are not 
suckling a foal. 

When intelligently organized, in regard to the different 
periods of gestation, ordinary farm work is exceedingly bene- 
ficial to both mare and foetus. Throughout the whole period it is 
better that the labor should be continued and uniform than 
violent or irregular. Shafting heavy loads, especially when 
much backing or turning is required, should not be permitted. 
Towards the end of pregnancy all work necessitating unequal 
movements, or even excessive effort, should be discontinued, and 
with the appearance of the signs that partuition may be expected 
to take place within a week or ten days, it is advisable, but not 
essential, that work should be entirely suspended. Pregnant 
mares should be stabled with due regard to security against 
annoyance, compression, or injury by other horses, and especially 
guarded against the accident of being "cast" in their stalls. 
Medical or surgical treatment should, as far as possible, be 
avoided; when absolutely necessary, the utmost possible care in 
its administration is required. 

The food and feeding of mares in foal are of great and 
important interest, the science and practice whereof must be 
carefully studied by breeders who would be successful in main- 
taining their mares healthy throughout the period of gestation, 
and over the act of foaling, and reap the reward of stout and 
vigorous foals. The quantity and nutritive quality of provender 
supplied to a pregnant m.are should be in strict accord with her 
individual requirements ; the establishment of a just balance 
between food and the demands for it can be determined by an 
accurate perception of condition, as exemplified by the possession 
of vigor and evidences of efficient nutrition. 

The two opposite extremes of obesity or plethora and exces- 
sive leanness or debility are to be avoided; the former predisposes 
to abortion and difficult labors, the latter (of the two the least 
evil) prejudicially influences the nutrition of the foetus and 
deteriorates the subsequent secretion of milk. Grass, unaided 



194 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

by artificial food, is insufficient for the sustenance of breeding 
mares subjected to labor; to insure the yearly production of 
strong foals a daily allowance of corn should be continuously 
supplied to them ; but, except in the depth of winter, or for very 
young or very aged mares, green food, chop and pulped roots 
suffice for the requirements of non-workers. 

Most farmers usually keep their pregnant mares, when not 
suckling, on the same ration as that supplied to the other work- 
ing horses. With good keepers the practice suffices to maintain 
adequate condition, but when the ordinary provender is of low 
quality the mares should receive an auxiliary allowance. 

Mashes or bruised oats or barley associated with pulped roots 
and chopped hay or straw, moistened with linseed-cake water, 
are the best adapted foods for working mares in foal— so con- 
stituted they afford a substantial, at the same time anon-exciting 
and easily assimilated diet. Maize is not a suitable article of 
diet for in-foal mares when it constitutes a chief part of their 
corn allowance — their newly dropped progeny always exhibit 
general weakness of muscle and abnormal relaxation of the liga- 
ments of the joints. 

For mares pastured during the day a short supply of rack 
or manger food given in early morning renders their digestive 
organs less susceptible to the possibly deleterious influences of 
dew-saturated grass. More than any other farm animals brood 
mares require to be supplied with diet of the best obtainable 
quality; every description of food likely to undergo rapid 
fermentation, or to produce indigestion, must be scrupulously 
avoided. Long fasts are exceedingly prejudicial, and in cases 
where they are unavoidable or have been occasioned through 
neglect, small quantities of tepid water and equally diminished 
rations of easily digestible food should only be allowed at inter- 
vals until the hunger and thirst have been reduced to their nor- 
mal standards. 

Pregnant mares should not be exposed to the influences of 
very excessive heat nor very severe cold, nor be pastured or 
folded with store oxen or young horses. 

Abortion is produced by any cause operating to disconnect 
the union of tlie foetal membranes with the uterus. These causes 
are very various and may obtain at all periods of pregnancy. 
Predisposition to abortion is to be found in peculiar conform a- 



STAIiLIONS, BEOOD MAKES AND YOUNG FOALS. 195 

tions of the pelvis, enlargements of the iliac bones, diseases of 
the womb, constitutional irritability, the influences of too stim- 
ulative diet or the the reverse, wet seasons, a previous miscar- 
riage, and all circumstances opposed to efficient nutrition and 
respiration. 

The more direct mechanical causes are falls, blows, compres- 
sions of the abdomen, violent and spasmodic exertion. Func- 
tional disorders, severe illnesses, large draughts of cold water or 
eating iced grass may be considered as the most frequent physio- 
logical causes. 

The symptoms of abortion vary with the term of gestation at 
which it occurs. When it follows shortly after conception the 
precursory signs, as well as the fact itself, are frequently unno- 
ticed, and the proprietor is led to believe that the mare has not 
been fecundated; on the other hand, when miscarriage takes 
place towards the end of the gestative period the premonitory 
symptoms are almost identical with the signs of normal parturi- 
tion, but the pains of abortion invariably piecede the changes 
in the appearance of the external organs of generation, which 
in normal foaling are noticeable some time before the labor 
pains come on. The usual signs of the foetus being dead, and 
not expelled immediately afterwards, are symptoms of ill-health 
in the mare, accompanied by a puriform and offensive bloody 
discharge from the vulvae. 

The prevention of abortion is the avoidance of all causes 
which may have a tendency to produce it. In advanced preg- 
nancy when a symptom of approaching miscarriage has been 
manifested the greatest care in the subsequent management of 
the mare is necessary. She should be placed in a roomy, dark- 
ened loose box, left perfectly unmolested, and the services of an 
experienced veterinary surgeon immediately sought. Whenever 
a mare has "picked her foal" the cause should, if possible, 
be determined, and means adopted to prevent other pregnant 
mares being exposed to similar conditions. They should also 
be removed to a distance from the place, on account of the mys- 
terious sympathetic influence exercised upon the organism of 
pregnant animals by the mere occurrence of abortion in one of 
their companions. The attention required by a mare after abor- 
tion materially depends upon the indications of her general 
health. It very frequently happens that the placental mem.- 



196 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING, 

branes are retained in the uterus; these should be removed 
before decomposition of their component parts is possible, and 
the mare should not be covered again imtil every appearance 
due to the mishap has entirely subsided. 

The characteristic signs that the gestative period has been 
fully and naturally completed, and that parturition may be 
shortly expected to take place, are very pronounced and so 
familiar to all persons who have had any experience in the man- 
agement of brood mares that they need not be enumerated. 

The natural instinctive desire for shade and solitude expe- 
rienced by the mare at this crisis should be indulged by placing 
her in a warm, roomy and well-littered loose box, so arranged 
that the progress she makes can be constantly ascertained with- 
out causing her annoyance by interruption. Normal parturition 
in the mare is very rapid; at her full time and with the foetus 
naturally placed the act is generally accomplished in a short 
space of time and without assistance. 

The sense of uneasiness created by the presence of the fully- 
developed foetus determines contraction of the abdominal mus- 
cles and diaphragm, as well as the walls of the womb itself; at 
the same time the orifice of the latter organ becomes dilated, 
succeeding efforts of expulsion push the muzzle and fore feet of 
the foetus further through the neck of the uterus, in which situa- 
tion they may be recognized immersed in the fluids of the yet 
unruptured membranes. More violent pains then force the head 
and shoulders through the pelvis, and another last contraction 
expels the posterior parts and completes the act. 

If the labor is prolonged and the pains are very strong, a quiet 
and careful examination should be made, for the puipose of 
ascertaining whether there is sufficient room for the foetus to 
pass through the pelvic arch, and also to determine whether the 
foal occupies a natural position. In the first case more time may 
be allowed; in the second the foetus will be required to be 
adjusted. To judge accurately of either of these conditions the 
attendant must be an experienced man, and know the exact time 
when interference is necessary. Very great harm is occasioned 
by premature and unnecessary meddling. He should make 
re-examinations from time to time, and if increased room is but 
tardily provided, he must take care, by securing the parts pre- 
sented, that the foetal position does not become changed from a 



STAIililONS, BKOOD MARES AND YOUNG FOALS. 197 

natural to a malpresentation through the continued and violent 
throes of the mare. Dilatation of the passage may be assisted 
by gentle and -well- applied traction upon those portions of the 
foetus that are naturally presented. The causes of difficult labor 
and the means to be adopted to overcome obstructions to delivery, 
with the treatment of the patient after parturition, are so 
numerous and belong so intrinsically to the science of veterinary 
surgery, that they have no place here. Whenever serious 
obstacles to delivery exist the aid of an experienced veterinary 
obstetrician should be promptly sought, and no violent tractile 
efforts employed until his arrival; but if the membranes are 
ruptured, as they probably will be befoi-e it is considered neces- 
sary to obtain skilled aid, it is wise to secure with cords the head 
or legs of the foal when easily practicable. It sometimes happens, 
especially with old and debilitated mares, that the act of parturi- 
tion becomes protracted from weakness alone. Such cases not 
only demand the administration of powerful internal stimulants, 
but require the employment of well-timed, gentle and firm trac- 
tion upon the foetus made to coincide with the throes of the 
mare; spasmodic, jerking efforts, which do not correspond with 
the parturient pains, in all cases do much harm, and are of little 
or no assistance to the act. 

After an easy labor strong mares require nothing but attention 
to their comfort and ordinary wants, and protection from cur- 
rents of cold air, but if the accouchement has been prolonged 
and painful a stimulant should be immediately given; debilitated 
mares under the last-named circumstance require frequent 
alcoholic stimulants, nourishing gruel and good nursing. 

The foetal envelopes, or after-birth, are usually expelled in a 
short time after natural labor; when retained for a day or two no 
danger need be apprehended, so long as the mare does not strain 
and her health continues unimpaired; but surgical interference 
for their removal becomes necessary when retained sufficiently 
long to render putrefaction probable. 

A.ged mares, having very large and pendulous abdomens, 
derive much comfort from a wide bandage passed several times 
round the body, adjusted evenly, and with a view of affording 
support without exerting undue pressure. 

After-pains continued for more than an hour are to be regarded 
as evidence as possibly some important derangement of the womb 



198 A TREATISE ON BtORSE-BREEDING. 

and requiring skilled aid. The application of a mustard and 
linseed poultice over the region of the loins is always consistent 
treatment in these cases and may be adopted at once to economize 
valuable time before the arrival of the veterinary surgeon. 

When a mare foals in a standing position the foetus glides 
down the thighs and reaches the ground unhurt; the umbilical 
cord is severed and dangerous hemorrhage thereby prevented. 
When the act is accomplished in a recumbent attitude, and the 
mare remains down, the cord must be divided between two 
ligatures previously tied round it a couple of inches apart, but if 
the mare rises immediately the cord will be ruptured in a safe 
and satisfactory manner. 

Many foals are lost through want of attention at the moment 
of birth. When the functions of respiration are not promptly 
established in the new-born foal, efforts must be made to excite 
them by blowing violently upon the muzzle and into the mouth, 
and by briskly rubbing the body with a wisp. If breathing is 
but slowly promoted a few teaspoonfuls of brandy and water, 
given after the first few respirations, will be of material service 
to invigorate the low vital powers. 

As soon as the mare has recovered from the shock the maternal 
instinct should be encouraged by allowing her to perform the 
office of nurse to her progeny, which will be physically benefited 
thereby. If the dam refuses to dry and caress her offspring, a 
little flour sprinkled over the back of the latter will sometimes 
attract her kindly to it; should this means fail the foal must be 
dried with soft flannel, conducted to the teat, and assisted to 
obtain its first aliment. 

It is sometimes necessary to protect the foal from ill-intention 
by a peevish dam, but after the mare has permitted the foal to 
suck, and has evinced maternal solicitude for its welfare by lick- 
ing and caressing it, no fear need be entertained that she will 
subsequently injure it wilfully. 

All the means briefly reviewed as necessary for the preserva- 
tion of the newly -born foal and comfort of the mare are to be 
continued for a period more or less prolonged, as their conditions 
and surrounding circumstances indicate. If both mare and foal 
are healthy, and especially if the mare has been pastured up to 
the time of foaling, they will be benefited by being turned to 
grass during fine weather, in a week or so after the birth; but 



STALLIONS, BROOD MARES AND YOUNG FOALS. 199 

they must be sheltered from rain and cold, particularly at night, 
so long as the weather continues unfavorable. 

At this early period the mare should never be permitted to 
graze until she has had a small allowance of sweet hay, or some 
other nutritious dry food, nor should she be subjected to work 
for at least three weeks after parturition. Some mares, especially 
primiparous ones, do not furnish sufficient milk for the susten- 
ance of their offspring. In these cases the mammary glands 
must be frequently stimulated by the foal and subsequently sub- 
mitted to gentle friction, and a supply of succulent, easily- 
digestible food allowed. In the absence of a plentiful supply of 
grass, boiled barley made into a sloppy mash, with the addition 
of some treacle and a little salt, is a palatable, nourishing diet, 
tending to increase the lacteal secretion. If these means fail to 
excite a sufficient flow of milk the foal must be periodically 
suckled by a foster mare, or be artificially nourished. Should 
the season not admit of mares being pastured, barley mashes, 
pulped roots, scalded oats and hay of the best procurable quality, 
should be liberally supplied. A plentiful allowance of water, or, 
for bad milking mares, nutritious gruel is necessary. 

Most mares, however, secrete a plentiful, and many a super- 
abundant supply of milk. Such do not require, soon after 
foaling, a more liberal allowance of food than they previously 
received. The provision of rich but close herbage suffices for 
their general requirements. In early life, too, foals are prone to 
contract dangerous diseases of the digestive organs, and on that 
account it is undesirable that they should be allowed, until 
several days old, to take the whole milk supply of a free-nourish- 
ing or well-fed dam. Under such circumstances the foal should 
not have access to the mare until part of the contents of the 
udder have been drawn o£f. After some days, when the foal has 
become stronger, the above-named precautions are unnecessary. 
A more liberal allowance of food may then be supplied, to be 
regulated by the demands made upon her nutritive functions by 
the growth of her foal and the wear and tear of labor to which 
she may be subjected. 

In districts where the mare is not required to work until the 
foal is weaned grass suffices for all her requirements. The best 
old pastures should, however, be reserved for her use. When 
these cease to afford sufficient green food by reason of drouth or 



200 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

overstocking the deficiency must be made up by an allowance of 
cut artificial grasses, lucerne or clover, given with discretion. 

If at any time during the period of lactation the udder be- 
comes inflamed, hot or tense, the diet must be promptly reduced, 
the milk reservoir very frequently emptied, and warm fomenta- 
tions adopted, to be followed by very gentle friction with soap 
and water (greasy substances ought not to be rubbed upon the 
glands, or if used, the residuum should be carefully removed by 
subsequent washing). If the foal is dead, or can conveniently be 
weaned, a dose of physic may be administered to the mare. Un- 
der other circumstances it may be necessary to put the mare un- 
der medical treatment of less drastic character. 

The usual time for weaning is when the foal has arrived at the 
age of five or six months, when, if the mare has reconceived, or 
has been or is about to be severely worked, it is for her benefit 
that the separation should not be longer delayed. 

If the miik secretion is not excessive no danger need be ap- 
prehended from the process of weaning, which it is desirable in 
all cases to effect gradually. On the contrary, the separation of 
the foals from free-nourishing mares must be accomplished by 
degrees. For some days prior to final removal of the foal the 
intervals of allowing it to suck must be increased in length, 
and the food- allowance of the mare reduced in quantity and 
quality for a corresponding time. 

If practicable also the mare should be more severely worked. 
After ultimate severance of the foal the glands must be periodic- 
ally hand-drawn, and a brisk purgative administered. Restricted 
diet, particularly in regard to fluid and succulent provender, 
should be enjoined until the secretion of milk is completely sus- 
pended. Mares kept only for breeding purposes, if in good con- 
dition and not enfeebled by age or other circumstances, may 
continue to nourish their foals for a much longer period — until, 
in fact, a natural weaning takes place and the milk secretion 
ceases. The weaning of foals from mares not subjected to labor 
and furnishing a full lacteal secretion must be accomplished 
with the exercise of all the hygienic and medicinal precautions 
previously indicated, and rendered especially necessary by absti- 
nence from work. 

Throughout the period of lactation, and very especially during 
that portion of it when the foal receives the whole of its suste- 



STALLIONS, BEOOD MAEES AND YOUNG FOALS. 201 

nance from the dam, it is requisite for the mare to be supplied 
with good food calculated to furnish material for the elaboration 
of wholesome milk. 

The first milk after parturition, called "colostrum," differs 
materially in composition from the subsequent secretion. It 
contains principles adapted to remove the mecomium (as the 
effete matters collected in the foal's intestines during foetal life 
are technically termed); on that account it is highly necessary 
that the newly-born foal should be supplied with the milk from 
its own dam, at least until the mecomium has been expelled and 
the bowels have assumed their natural function. 

Until the approach of the time for weaning, a foal should be 
permitted to have access to its dam at intervals of not exceeding 
four hours. 

It is frequently alleged that "heated milk" is extremely prej- 
udicial to the foal. I admit there is a probability of trouble- 
some skin disease being caused by allowing a foal to partake of 
the milk of a mare when she is overheated, but I think the dan- 
ger of "heated milk" producing diarrhoea or "scour" is exagger^ 
ated, or, rather, that the evil consequences in this particular re- 
spect are as much attributable to the fact that the young animal, 
pressed by hunger, partakes too greedily and too plentifully, and, 
as a consequence, is primarily attacked with acute indigestion. 

It is always better to be on the safe side and allow the mare 
to become cool and to bathe her distended glands with lukewarm 
water before the foal is admitted to her. 

It is not always that a mare which secretes a copious supply 
of milk is a good nourisher; some, especially old mares, or those 
subjected to very heavy work and inefiiciently fed, elaborate a 
fluid deficient in nutritive quality, a circumstance rendered evi- 
dent by the condition of the foal, which will become wasted and 
probably attacked with diarrhoea. 

In such cases the mare must be especially well nourished, and, 
in instances of extreme necessity, the foal assisted by artificial 
lactation: it should also as soon as possible be encouraged to 
take manger food, of which boiled beans should constitute the 
basis, in order that the advantage of an early weaning may be 
secured. 

Notwithstanding the purgative effects of the colostrum, the 
young foal frequently suffers from constipation of the bowels, 
14 



202 A TEEATISE ON HOKSE-BEEEDING. 

and especially so if the dam is or has been during the later peri- 
ods of pregnancy fed with dry or indigestible food; certainly so 
if the mai-e has had an acute attack of dyspepsia near the end of 
the gestative term. Many persons establish the rule that every 
foal shall have a dose of oil shortly after birth. The practice is 
generally good— none but beneficial effects are likely to result 
therefrom, and the life of the foal must be regarded as unsafe 
until free evacuation of the bowels has been effected. When pre- 
ceding circumstances have rendered it probable that the foal will 
be constipated, the exhibition of a full dose of castor oil is im- 
peratively indicated, and, in addition, frequent enemata of warm 
soap and water are recommended. 

It can not be expected, nor is it desirable, that the numerous 
diseases incident to breeding animals of the equine species and 
their progeny can be even very briefly reviewed in an essay of 
this kind; the consideration of such a subject properly apper- 
tains to veterinary science. There is, however, one malady af- 
fecting young foals which, on account of its frequency and fatal- 
ity, may be glanced at. 

No disease is more prevalent among sucking animals, and 
few so fatal, as diarrhoea. Although less subject than calves, 
foals are often carried off by it within a short space of time. 
The causes have not been accurately determined, but the most 
eminent veterinarians attribute it to changes of unknown char- 
acter, and brought about by unascertained causes in the compo- 
sition of the milk. 

Two facts relating thereto have, however, been proved, viz.: 
that the causes are often widely diffused; and, secondly, that 
their potency is increased by defective hygienic surroundings, 
especially unwholesome stable accommodation and overcrowd- 
ing of animals. Unless curative treatment is very early adopted 
an unfavorable issue is almost certain, and the generally fatal 
nature of the disease gives little hope of cure when the symp- 
toms have become fully developed. At the outset a full dose of 
castor oil ought to be given, the action of which is to be followed 
by repeated small doses of carbonate of iron and carbonate of 
soda, with laudanum and brandy, given in cold rice-meal gruel. 
As food, bean-meal made into the consistency of milk, and given 
at short intervals, is extremely beneficial, and should take the 
place of a large proportion of the mare's milk. The diet of the 



STALLIONS, BROOD MARES AND YOUNG FOALS. 203 

mare is to be completely changed, and the foal and dam 
promptly removed to other quarters. As curative treatment is 
so rarely successful, efforts must be made for preventincr the 
disease. The provision of good, dry, clean lodgings, pure w"ater, 
and the occasional administration of alkaline carbonates to the 
mare, the diet of which should be wholesome, and be partly 
composed of leguminous seeds, are the means most likely to be 
attended with benelficial results. 

Dr. Eeynolds' remarks upon brood mares lead me to 
speak of the efPects of pasture upon mares at the time of 
service. It is the general opinion of those who have given 
close attention to this subject that mares, when first turned 
to grass, after having been kept stabled, and on dry feed 
for a considerable period, are not so likely to get in foal as 
those that have been on grass for some time previous to 
service by the stalhon; or as those that are not on grass at 
aU. The theory is that turning mares to grass produces, 
for a time, a sort of general muscular relaxation, or soften- 
ing, that is not favorable to conception. I have always ad- 
vised that mares which have been kept stabled previous to 
being sent to the staUion should be kept on dry food for at 
least four weeks after the service. On the other hand, I 
have thought it best when mares that had been kept on 
grass for a considerable previous period, were sent for ser- 
vice, that they should be so kept for some time afterward. 
At such times I would avoid any material change in the 
food or treatment. If the mare has been kept on grass let 
her so remain for at least a month; if she has been kept 
stabled and in idleness let her remain so for a few weeks; 
if she has been worked continue to work her moderately' 
Of course these directions apply to such mares only as have 
not proven hitherto barren. In case a mare has been served 
repeatedly, and has failed to conceive, a radical change in 
food and management may bring about the desired result. 



204 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDINO. 



CHAPTER IV. 



DISEASES PECULIAR TO BREEDING STOCK. 

PART I. 

The following extracts from articles prepared at my re- 
quest, by Prof. James Law, of Cornell University, for publi- 
cation, at various times, under my direction, have a strong 
bearing upon the subject matter to which this chapter is 
devoted and will, I am sure, be found highly interesting 
and valuable to my readers : 

HYGIENE OF THE EYE.* 

"As ye sow so shall ye reap," is as true of the propagation of 
animals as of the propagation of grain or weeds. In the case of 
sightless or partially blind horses it is especially true. In what- 
ever country or district we find blind mares and stallions used 
for breeding, there we find a large proportion of even the young 
horses with faulty eyes. In whatever country, on the other hand, 
we find all horses with impaired eyesight rejected for breeding 
purposes, there we find the number of blind horses steadily de- 
creasing. This depends not alone on the fact that "like produces 
like," but upon this additional one, that the greater part of the 
blindness in horses depends on a specific disease which is as 
surely hereditary as gout or rheumatism. This is the too famil- 
iar "moon-blindness," or recurring inflammation of the eyes. 
Formerly this was very prevalent in England, but the systematic 
rejection of the diseased animals as breeders has greatly reduced 



* The Breeder's Gazette, Vol. I, p. 508. 



DISEASES PECULIAR TO BREEDING STOCK. 205 

the number of blind horses in later years. In America there is 
still a very wide margin for improvement. The blind stallion 
and the blind mare should be alike discarded, and it is well to 
avoid the progeny of horses that have suffered from this "recur- 
ring ophthalmia," even though their own eyes may still be appa- 
rently sound. 

Among the indications that an animal has suffered from the 
disease are the following: A slight bluish opacity around the 
margin of the transparent cornea; a sunken appearance of the 
eye, which seems smaller than natural; the existence of an angu- 
lar interruption in the regular curve of the upper eyelid about 
one-third from its inner end; and a tendency to shy from imper- 
fect sight. If in addition to this there is a loss of the clear luster 
of the iris (around the pupil), and an undue feeling of tension 
and resistance when the eyeball is pressed through the lid, or if 
there is a cataract the evidence becomes the more conclusive. A 
cataract is recognized by a whitish opaque spot behind the pupil. 
It is best seen when the horse is led toward the stable door, so 
that the light may fall on the eyes from above and behind, while 
the interior of the stable forms a dark background. In bad 
cases the entire pupil is filled up by the opaque spot and the horse 
becomes blind on that side. An animal showing such features, 
or one which suffers at intervals from swelling or watering of the 
eyes, should never be used for breeding. 

Nearsightedaess is another quality which is derived from pa- 
rents, and which is specially dangerous, by causing the horse to 
shy. It is further manifested in most cases by a peculiar bulging 
appearance of the eye, by reason of an extra convexity of the 
cornea. 

The foals of horses that have suffered from moon-blindness 
are not all equally subject to its attacks. Much of the difference 
depends on the varying activity of the disease in the parent at 
the time of conception or during the period of pregnancy. A 
case strongly illustrative of this may be noted: A mare, not pre- 
disposed to reeiirring O'phthalmia, had a burdock entangled in the 
forelock so as to be directly upon the eye, which was thus kept 



206 A TKEATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

inflamed and running for a length of time during the course of 
pregnancy. The progeny— a filly— had the eye on the same side 
defective, and represented by a small opaque black mass. The 
dam recovered, and afterward bore colts with sound eyes, as did 
also the one-eyed filly in due course of time. This but expresses 
a general law — that the disorder which is active and causes suffer- 
ing at the time of reproduction is most likely to tell injuriously 
on the progeny. When, therefore, all the progeny inherit a con- 
stitutional predisposition to moon-blindness, those which are be- 
gotten or borne during a period of active disease and suffering 
on the part of one or both parents are most likely to become per- 
manently blind. Another dominating cause of moon-blindness 
is the occurring in the predisposed animal of debility or weak- 
ness from any influence. It may be safely assumed that what- 
ever undermines the general health or lowers the hardy vigor of 
such predisposed animals tends to bring on the disease. Thus, 
coarse, fibrous or unnutrious fodder often acts in this way. An 
exciting, over-stimulating diet acts in the same way. An animal 
that keeps sound on a diet of oats or barley may fall a victim if 
fed on Indian corn. Overwork, or the combination of hard work 
and a diet insufiicient to repair the excessive waste, is equally in- 
jurious. Debilitating diseases of all kinds are equally liable to 
superinduce the malady. An attack of influenza, a chronic indi- 
gestion, or the presence of worms in the stomach or bowels, may 
be the immediate cause of yyioon-hlindness, one without which 
the hereditary tendency might have remained latent. Some 
causes, however, deserve more special mention, because of their 
general operation or more wide-reaching effects. 

It is notorious that certain countries and districts suffer more 
from recurring ophthalmia than others. In a general way it is the 
more moist and relaxing that furnish the most victims. The 
west of England and the whole of Ireland furnish more subjects 
of opthalmia than does the dry eastern coast of Great Britain. 
The damp, marshy and cloudy region to the north of the Pyre- 
nees suffers badly, while in the dry, clear atmosphere of Catalo- 
nia, to the south of these mountains, the disease is almost un- 



DISEASES PECULIAE TO BKEEDING STOCK. 207 

known. So notorious is this that dealers are in the habit of 
buying in Southern France, at a low price, horses that have had 
but one attack of ophthalmia, and of transporting them to Catalo- 
nia, where, as a rule, they escape any further seizure. 

The effect of a damp, sunless, relaxing climate, however, is 
productive of a heavy, lymphatic stamp of horse, which is always 
more predisposed to affections of this kind than the horse of fine 
fiber and nervous temperament. In this respect the North Amer- 
ican continent should be more favorable to the horse than the 
moister climate of England, being an approximation toward the 
climate of Syria and North Africa, the cradle of all that is excel- 
lent in horse flesh; yet, even in the United States, a low, marshy, 
damp and cloudy region is to be avoided when it is wanted to 
develop the highest speed or the greatest vigor and endurance. 
Places and climates that prove most favorable for the raising of 
meat-producing animals are most likely to deteriorate the horse 
by developing a loose, open texture of bone, a bulky but soft, 
flabby muscle, and an undue tendency to sluggishness and fatten- 
ing. The lymphatic temperament thus indicated is that which 
especially predisposes to ophthalmia, and if such young animals 
are retained in such a climate they are particularly liable to 
suffer. 

Close stables are hurtful in various ways. The relaxing effect 
of the stable upon the young horse is always marked; but this is 
especially so when, as in dealers' stables, the air is kept extra hot 
to produce a fine coat. The damp rising from the lungs and 
skin of the animals, and from the dung and urine, is especially 
injurious, because of its relaxing effects, but still more so because 
of the active decomposition which it maintains in the organic 
matter floating in the air, or lodged on the walls, floors and wood- 
work. The effect of this is seen in the great predominance of 
diseases of the air passages in young horses that have been re- 
cently stabled; and upon animals predisposed to ophthalmia the 
same disturbing influence tends similarly to the development of 
that affection. Apart from the debility and fever which this 
(5hange brings about, it will be observed that the air of the stable 



208 A TEEATISE ON HORSE-BKEEDING. 

repeats, on a small scale, the damp, hot, cloudy, relaxing climate 
which we have seen to be the most favorable to the development 
of the disease we are dealing with. 

For breeding and growing horses, therefore, it is all-impor- 
tant to secure dry, airy, roomy stables, and to keep these clean 
and sweet. A naturally porous or well-drained soil, a sunny ex- 
posure and a sufficiency of ventilating orifices above and below, 
so disposed as not to create cold draughts, are points of especial 
value. 

Stables should be so constructed as to avoid darkness on the 
one hand and a full glare of sunshine striking the eyes on the 
other. Darkness is usually associated with uncleanliness, damp 
and close air; but, apart from these, it is injurious in hindering 
the proper development of red blood globules, which are so es- 
sential to sound and vigorous health. It further tends to weaken 
the eyes, and to expose them to suffering and inflammation when 
suddenly taken out into the full glare of sunshine. When the 
sunlight is reflected from snow, from white walls, or from the 
white dust of a limestone soil, it becomes increasingly injurious. 
It is well to have a stable well lighted, but the sunlight should be 
made to enter behind or to one side, and not to fall directly on 
the eyes of the animals. 

How common an occurrence is the presence of hay seed or 
chaff in the eyes of animals. Nothing can conduce more to the 
development of a latent predisposition to ophthalmia. The sen- 
sibility of the eye is adapted to its situation, which is protected 
by the margins of the orbit against solid objects of large size, 
while it is especially liable to be invaded by fine particles of sand, 
dust, etc. A smooth marble or finger may be made to touch the 
eyeball without great suffering, while a grain of sand or ashes 
produces exquisite torture. To avoid these smaller and more 
hurtful bodies hay racks should be made no higher than the ordi- 
nary manger, and, if filled from above, it should be through a 
closely boarded chute, so that neither seed nor dust may readily 
drop into the eyes. 

The above remarks are equally applicable to the dust of the 



DISEASES PECULIAR TO BREEDING STOCK. 209 

highway in summer. With breeding-animals especially it is 
dangerous to drive in the cloud of dust raised by a leading 
wagon, but how much more so if the horse is hereditarily predis- 
posed to ophthalmia. In the same way we should guard the 
horse against the cinders flying into open railway cars, from the 
dust of a threshing machine blowing upon the horses engaged in 
driving it, the dust of a harrow driven in the same direction as 
the wind, the smoke of burning rubbish, etc. 

In addition to the bad effects of insufficient, faulty or too 
stimulating food, already referred to, it is well to rote that the 
consumption of too much sugar is liable to induce disease of the 
eyes. This is especially likely to result from a too exclusive diet 
of sorghum, or from the large admixture of molasses with the 
food. It may, indeed, be questioned whether the notoriously evil 
effects of a diet of Indian corn on the eyes is not partly due to 
the abundance of starch in its composition, and to the conversion 
of that starch into sugar in the system. 

THE EYE AS AFFECTED BY THE TEETH.* 

The process of teething is calcalated to rouse into activity a 
latent predisposition to disease of the eyes in horses. The rapid 
progress of teething in the horse, and the completion of the pro- 
cess at an early age, determines much vascular and nervous ex- 
citement about the head, and the weakest point, in many cases, 
being the eyes, these are too often the parts to suffer. To illus- 
trate the influence of teething it need only be said that at three 
years old the horse acquires eight new grinding teeth and four 
front ones. A year later he acquires eight additional grinders, 
four front teeth and four tushes. It is small wonder that at these 
ages the gums and soft pad of the upper jaw swell; that the 
horse refuses his food, or eats with little appetite; that he drops 
morsels half chewed, and that he appears at times sluggish, dull 
and feverish. Nor is it surprising that at this age the progeny of 
horses that have suffered from recurring ophthalmia themselves 

* The Breeder's Gazette, Vol. I, p. 536. 



210 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

show symptoms of the same disease. It is this tendency to dis- 
eases of the eyes during the eruption of the permanent teeth 
which has drawn horsemen's attention to the wolf teeth as the 
supposed cause of the evil. The wolf teeth, however, come up 
with the first set of molars, and are therefore in the mouth dur- 
ing the whole of early life, and until the adjacent teeth— the 
front upper grinders— are shed. Whenever, therefore, a young 
horse suffers from diseased eyes, the owner or attendant opens the 
mouth, and finding wolf teeth concludes that these are the cause 
of the trouble. The wolf tooth is imbedded not more than half 
an inch in its socket, while the adjacent grinders, and even the 
front nippers, extend into the bone for about two inches. These 
other teeth are, therefore, far more likely to produce irritation 
than are the wolf teeth, and, as a matter of fact, the congestion 
of the palate, familiarly known as lampas, occurs close behind 
the front teeth, and not near the wolf teeth. In the shedding of 
the back grinders, too, it is not at all uncommon to have so 
much irritation caused that it extends to the throat and causes 
sore throat and cough. But around the insignificant wolf teeth it 
is rare to find any irritation at all, and that only when they devi- 
ate from their true direction. The temporary recovery from sore 
eyes after the extraction of the wolf teeth is just what would 
have happened had the teeth been left in place, and proves only 
that the disease appears and disappears alternately. 

The excitement attendant on teething is natural, yet it is well 
to check this when it threatens to become severe, or to rouse 
sympathetic inflammation of the eyes. If cositiveness appears 
during the process, the substitution for a portion of the diet of 
soft mashes of wheat-bran, of fresh, succulent grass, of roots, 
apples, or ensilage will prove beneficial. If these are not avail- 
able or are ineffective, one or two ounces of Glauber's salts may 
be given daily in the feed. If the old teeth do not fall early and 
spontaneously, but remain entangled on the crowns of the nev;^ 
ones after the latter have cut the gums, they should be removed; 
if the gums become red, swollen and tender, a slight scarifying 
of the suface so as to let a little blood will usually relieve; and if 



DISEASES PECUNIAE TO BREEDING STOCK. 211 

* 
new teeth, and especially the tushes, produce tension and pain 
by their pressure before cutting the gums, their eruption should 
be assisted by a deep incision with the lancet, down to the hard 
tooth substance. 

UMBILICAL HEKNIA IN YOUNG FOALS."^^ 

This condition is usually very easy to recognize. A pouched 
or pyriform swelling appears in the median line of the abdomen, 
immediately below the navel, which, on manipulation, is felt to 
contain movable contents, which glide readily on each other and 
can be easily returned into the abdominal cavity by pressure. 
Then in the center of the navel can be felt an opening of variable 
size, which may admit one, two or four fingers. On relaxing the 
pressure the sack fills up again more or less promptly and fully. 
When manipulating the contents, and during their return, there 
will usually be felt, and even heard, some gurgling from the 
admixture of liquids and gases in the contained intestine. 

It is needless to mention here more than one mode of treat- 
ment that should serve every purpose in the very young, in 
which the tissues of the navel are still embryonic cells, and the 
opening, therefore, easily closed. Procure a piece of sole leather 
from four to six inches square to apply upon the navel after the 
mass of the intestines has been passed back into the belly. To 
each corner of the leather pad attach an elastic band, and bring 
the same upward around the body, tjing them over the spine. 
Pass a band around the lower part of the neck to act as a collar. 
From the lower part of this collar carry an elastic band between 
the fore legs and attach it to the anterior border of the leather 
pad. From the same collar, on each side of the shoulder, carry 
an elastic band back on the side of the chest and tie it succes- 
sively to the two elastic bands which encircle the body. The 
essential point is that all of the bands should be elastic, so that 
they yield and accommodate themselves to the movements of the 
abdomen in breathing and of the body in all its varied motion. 

* The Breeder's Gazette, Vol. I, p. 281, 



212 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

If a similar bandage is applied with inelastic bands drawn tight 
enough to keep the pad in contact with the umbilicus in all the 
breathing movements it is liable to cause severe, and even fatal, 
straining. As an accessory to the pad and elastic bands may be 
applied on the umbilicus a liberal amount of melted pitch, or 
pitch and wax, which will bind the band and skin and still fur- 
ther secure against any descent of the hernia. If by these means 
the bowels can be prevented from descending through the open- 
ing, the walls of that opening will speedily contract and become 
fibrous, and the possibility of future protrusion will.be obviated. 

In cases of longer standing — in colts, for example, of several 
months old— the embryonic cellular tissue around the navel has 
already been developed into fibrous material, so that the contrac- 
tion and closure is not so speedy, and in such cases it may be 
desirable, when the hernia is small, to leave it to nature — at least 
until the colt is one or two years old. In such cases a sponta- 
neous cure often ensues; but the opening is rarely so completely 
effaced, nor so strongly closed, as when effected by bandage 
immediately after birth. 

The explanation of the spontaneous recovery is this: The 
lower part of the abdomen in the adult horse is occupied by the 
large intestines to the utter exclusion of the small. In the young 
foal these are scarcely larger than the small intestines, and easily 
protrude through any natural or artificial orifice. As the foal 
grows, however, and subsists more and more on coarse and solid 
food, the large intestines gain in size, and in mature life they 
vary from four to twelve inches in diameter, at different points. 
The blind gut, which is one of the largest, lies obliquely across 
above the navel, and by its great bulk forms an internal pad, 
which most effectually shuts off the small intestines from this 
region. 

" SCOURS " OR DIARRHOEA IN COLTS. 

In all young animals there is a certain amount of secretions 
from the liver, pancreas, stomach and bowels prior to birth, and 
when the new being comes into the world these products are ac- 
cumulated, in the form of firm, tenacious masses, in the last gut. 



DISEASES PECULIAR TO BKEEDING STOCK. 213 

At first the bowels are torpid, and the stiff, tenacious contents, 
or meconium, obstructs all progress. The natural laxative, which 
nature has furnished to clear away this product, is the milk first 
secreted, and when abundant this usually serves every purpose. 
But from various causes this milk may be deficient in amount or 
altered in quality, and may fail to produce free evacuation of the 
bowels. Then follow cositiveness, impaction of the bowels with 
the waste products of the digestion of milk, decomopsition of 
these products, impairment or alteration of the secretions of the 
whole digestive apparatus, and, finally, irritation, excessive 
watery secretion, unnaturally active movements of the bowels, 
perhaps even inflammation, and, of course, scouring. For this 
condition, which is a very common one, the preventive is to 
watch the foal closely for the first twenty-four hours, and, if the 
bowels are not freely moved, to give a dose of three ounces of 
castor or olive oil, with a tea-spoonful of laudanum. 

In the young the liver is relatively far larger and more active 
than in the adult. As might be expected, it is at the same time 
more liable to disorder. In many cases of indigestion in young 
foals the extreme foetor of the discharges, the coated appearance 
of the tongue, and the yellowness of the membranes of the eyes 
and nose, testify to the existence of this derangement. In such 
cases, after the operation of the oil, much good may often be 
derived from one grain of calomel and twelve grains of chalk, 
intimately mixed, and repeated two or three times a day. 

Anything that affects the general health of the mare is liable 
to modify the milk. When mares are used in harness during 
lactation, it occasionally happens that a fretful animal becomes 
so fevered that the quality of the milk is materially altered, and 
the foal, coming to her hungry, gorges itself with what acts like 
a veritable poison, inducing indigestion, with skin eruptions or 
diarrhoea. So it is with other unhealthy conditions of the mother. 
In all febrile, wasting, or disordered states, the milk is more or 
less altered, and every such alteration is a threat to the sound 
digestion of the foal, and may prove a proximate cause of 
scouring. With some it is a common practice, after the mare has 



214 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDlNG. 

been excited by work, to keep the foal apart until all the milk 
found in the bag has been drawn off, since they justly conclude 
that what is secreted later, when the period of excitement is past, 
will prove more wholesome. In the same manner we ought to 
correct, as far as possible, any alteration of health on the part of 
the dam. 

We know that the relative amount of water and solids in the 
milk is greatly affected by the nature of the food. A suckling 
animal, in good health, has a richer and more concentrated milk 
when fed on dry hay, and especially with a liberal supply of grain. 
Now, the very richness of this milk may unduly stimulate the 
digestive organs of the young animal, and any such undue 
stimulation borders on disease. A slight congestion of the 
stomach, or a temporary suspension of its secretions, may lead 
to the formation of larger masses of curd, which are difficult to 
dissolve, and lie but as permanent irritants in the abused organ. 
Although the best course is to prevent the formation of these, it 
is often needful to treat them, and perhaps nothing will serve our 
purpose better than a dose of castor oil, as above advised, to be 
repeated in three days; and in the interval two table-spoonfuls of 
a solution of rennet in wine, repeated morning, noon and night 
of each day. To prevent recurrence of the indigestion the ren- 
net may be continued for some time, and the mare should be 
allowed an abundance of water, not too cold, and one or two soft 
mashes daily. The rennet solution may be prepared by taking 
one-eighth of the fourth stomach of a calf and steeping in a pint 
of wine. Water may be substituted for wine, if a sufficient 
amount of salt, or a few drops of carbolic acid are added, to 
I)revent putrefactive change. * 

For the suckling mare grass is unquestionably the natural 
food. Left to nature she brings forth her young at the period 
when pastures are luxuriant, and on this diet her milk is abun- 
dant and good, but not too rich nor concentrated; and yet even 
green food is not always most conducive to the health of mare 
and foal. Occasionally in early spring the fresh grass is so 
rank, and its growth so rapid, that it contains an excess of water; 



blS3BASES PECULIAR TO BEEEDING STOCK. 215 

and even its constituent organic elements appear to differ from 
those of a less rapid growth, and the result is acute indigestion 
and violent diarrhcea. This, which shows itself primarily in the 
mare, may be propagated in the foal as well, by the morbid prod- 
ucts secreted in the milk. Nothing is more certain than that 
very many chemical agents, introduced into the system of the 
mother, pass out largely by the milk. It is an old practice to 
give a dose of salts or other purgative to the mother, with the 
view of acting on the bowels of the offspring. Poisons, too, 
taken into the system of the mother, will often pass out in the 
milk, and affect the more susceptible offspring rather than the 
less impressible nurse. Hence it is that green food that has been 
grown under unusual conditions, fodder that has been spoiled in 
harvesting, impure waters with an excess of decomposing organic 
matter, and mineral waters containing laxative salts, may appear 
to act even more severely on the sucking animal than on its dam, 
through which these were derived. The notice of these things is, 
perhaps, sufficiently suggestive to lead to their correction when 
they are found to exist. It need only be stated that green food, 
which is actively irritant when used alone, will often prove harm- 
less when employed in connection with grain or other dry food; 
but occasionally this will fail, and each case must be judged by 
its own results. 

Confinement in close buildings is inimical to mare and foal 
alike. In both it induces a relaxed, weakened condition, which 
lays the system open to health-disturbing causes. The effect 
on the mare impairs the quality of the milk, and this in its turn 
reacts on the foal, which, thus placed between two fires, is 
doubly liable to suffer. But close confinement is too often asso- 
ciated with impure air and filthy surroundings, and nothing can 
well be more hurtful to health than this unhygienic combination. 
After foaling, as before, mares should have the means of taking 
free exercise, and if in early spring they can not do this in 
the pasture each ought to have the run of a yard connected with 
a dry, comfortable shed, where she and her foal may use and de- 
velop their locomotive organs and strengthen their constitutions. 



216 A TEEATISE ON HOBSE-BKEEDING. 

Perhaps nothing is more hurtful to the young than a cold, 
damp bed. Suddenly transferred from a warm medium to the 
cold of early spring, it is of no small importance that the young 
animal should be protected against the excess of cold which 
comes of damp and evaporation, or even freezing. The sym- 
pathy between the skin and the bowels is of the most intimate 
kind, and in earliest youth, when the susceptibility of the bowels 
is so great, the chilling of the surface often leads to disastrous 
congestions of the bowels and fatal scouring. 

Similar to the above is exposure to cold rain storms. A pass- 
ing shower may do no harm, even if cold; but a prolonged ex- 
posure to rain, with a low temperature, is terribly trying to the 
system of the new-born foal, and often leads to disorders of the 
digestive organs, with persistent and fatal diarrhcea. 

Only two more conditions may be referred to, and both are 
connected with a more advanced period of colthood than are 
thos3 already mentioned. When the foal begins to feed he may 
suffer from all those conditions of the food that prove noxious 
through the milk of the mother. A feed, for example, of a too 
stimulating grain, or of a too rank and aqueous grass, of fodder 
that has been badly harvested and rendered musty or bleached 
and fibrous, of grain or hay that has been altered by ergot or 
smut, and of roots and tubers that have been frosted or diseased 
—these and others may at times give rise to irritation in the as 
yet comparatively inhabituated stomach, and scouring is a not 
distant consequence. 

The second evil result of faulty food and water is the presence 
of worms in the intestines. All the round worms of the intes- 
tines of the horse can live in water and moist earth, or in fresh 
vegetation, in their early and immature condition. Thus they 
are liable to be taken in continually with the food and water, and 
developing in the intestines they lay eggs almost without limit as 
to numbers, to be hatched and sped on the same noxious course. 
Hence it is that in pastures that have been grazed by horses year 
after year, and with drinking ponds and shallow wells into which 
the washings of the surface can find their way, the colts are par 



DISEASES PECUI/IAK TO BEEEDING STOCK. 217 

ticularly liable to worms; and diarrhoea from this cause is by no 
means unfrequent. In such a case there is the general unthrifty 
appearance of the wormy animal, and the rubbed, frizzled ap- 
pearance of the hair at the root of the tail which bespeaks the 
itching of the anus. The most marked symptom, however, is 
the presence of the worms in the dung, and these can usually be 
found if carefully sought for. In such a case it is well to give a 
dose of physic to clear away the mucus in which the vermin live; 
and if this is associated with a vermifuge the majority of the 
parasites may be expelled at once. Six table-spoonfuls of castor 
oil, with two or three tea-spoonfuls of oil of turpentine, accord- 
ing to the size of the foal, should be well shaken together and 
given as one dose. After this has operated twenty grains of 
powdered sulphate of iron and ten grains of santonin may be 
given daily for a week, when the dose of oil and turpentine may 
be repeated, which will usually clear away all the parasites that 
remain in the bowels. 

In conclusion, a caution is needed against a too common 
method of treating diarrhoea from the outset with opium and 
astringents, with the view of cutting short the discharge. As a 
rule, scouring is but an indication of the presence in the stomach 
or bowels of some cause of irritation; and all attempts to quiet 
the irritation by opium or astringents serve but to imprison the 
cause of trouble, and thus to prolong its irritant action. The 
soundest policy in all such cases is to expel the disturber with a 
bland laxative like castor oil, guarding its action, if need be, by 
a little laudanum or other soothing agent; and only later, when 
the irritant has been expelled, to check the discharge and shelter 
and protect the irritated bowel by weak solutions of gum arabic, 
of slippery elm, or by well-boiled linseed tea or starch. But even 
then these must be used in moderation lest they should produce 
a secondary constipation, which will prove even more hurtful 
than the diarrhoea. A good prescription for this stage, and 
which may be repeated once, twice or thrice a day, as may be 
necessary, is eight grains of kino, one ounce tincture of cinna- 
mon, one-half drachm of gum arabic and two drachms of chalk. 
15 



218 A TREATISE ON HOKSE-BBEEDING. 

To sucking animals this may be given along with the preparation 
of rennet, and should only be continued so long as the bowels 
are loose and irritable. 

STBANGLES OE DISTEMPEB. 

However strangles may be produced, or whatever acces- 
sory causes may favor its development, there can be no doubt 
that once in existence it can be propagated by contagion. We 
frequently see all the young horses on a number of adjacent 
farms suffering at once from this malady, while a farm entirely 
surrounded by these, but which has had no direct equine com- 
munication with them, maintains a clean bill of health. But let 
one of the sick colts be introduced into the latter, and speedily 
all the horses unprotected by any antecedent attack present the 
unequivocal symptoms of strangles. Lastly, in many different 
cases the malady has been conveyed from horse to horse by inocu- 
lation, thus attesting in the most undoubted manner the presence 
of contagion. We are the more particular in enforcing this fact 
of contagion that most English authors deny its existence, and 
thus blind their readers to a most important measure of precau- 
tion. In many seasons the affection assumes a uniformly mild 
and regular form, and passing promptly through all its stages, is 
invariably followed by a satisfactory recovery. In other seasons 
it shows the greatest tendency to an irregular course — to a tardy 
and imperfect maturation of the swellings, to inflammation and 
abscess in unwonted situations, and to secondary formations of 
matter in distant and vital organs, with most injurious or fatal 
results. If we conclude that the disease is in the air, or in the 
system only, as English authors assert, we may well decide that 
we can do little to hinder its appearance in the more fatal 
seasons, or to favor it in the safer and milder ones. If, however, 
we recognize the truth that the disease may be to a great extent 
prevented by seclusion and disinfection, while its development 
can be secured by exposure to contagion, we can protect our 
studs in the less favorable outbreaks, and even pass them through 
the malady in the milder ones, thus saving many lives and many 



DISEASES PECUIilA-R TO BREEDING STOCK. 219 

more cases of roaring, thick wind, chronic coughs, and other 
affections of the air passages. 

Strangles is usually preceded by a period of incubation, mani- 
fested by a staring coat, loss of condition, dullness and languor, 
with perspiration and fatigue under slight exertion. These are 
followed by rise of the body temperature, heat and clamminess 
of the mouth, redness of the eyes and interior of the nose, and a 
watery distillation from both, driveling of saliva from the mouth, 
accelerated breathing and pulse, costiveness, scanty, high-colored 
urine, and increased thirst. Now the characteristic swellings ap- 
pear in front of the throat and between the two branches of the 
lower jaw. This is a uniformly rounded swelling, hot and tender, 
firm and resistant in the center, but softer, more doughy and 
pitting on pressure on the surface and around the margins. 
After two or three days, in the regular cases, the center of the 
swelling softens and fluctuates from contained pus, and a few 
days later still it bursts, discharging an abundant white, creamy 
matter, and speedily heals up, this being accompanied by a resto- 
ration to vigorous health. 

Sometimes the swelling is situated in the throat, and may 
press inward on the pharynx, preventing swallowing, and caus- 
ing a rejection of water and food by the nose. In other cases it 
presses on the larynx, shutting off the air from the lungs and 
causing the most difficult stertorous breathing, or even proving 
fatal by suffocation. At other times the swelling beneath the 
lower jaw is replaced, or supplemented, by similar swellings in 
distant parts of the body, but mainly in the groups of the lym- 
phatic glands, in the neck, shoulder, groin, chest, abdomen, or 
elsewhere. In these cases the danger is always greatly enhanced, 
but it will be proportionate to the vitality of the organs in which 
the inflammation and suppuration supervenes. In some in- 
stances the swelling first appears in its natural situation under 
the jaw, but fails to come to a head, remaining hard and indolent 
for an indefinite length of time. In all such cases the strength is 
much run down, and there is a great tendency to the formation 
of matter in important internal organs, and especially in the 



220 A TREATISE ON SORSE-BREEDING. 

brain, with fatal results. In such cases, too, there is a great 
tendency to enormous dropsical and bloody effusions in the head 
and limbs, as the result of debility and a very depraved condition 
of the blood. 

Suggestion has already been made of the great importance of 
guarding against exposure to contagion, to change of locality, or 
to any of the exciting causes of the disease, when that shows any 
tendency to assume an irregular or fatal form in a district. Dis- 
infectants even may be used in the stables, such as fumes of 
burning sulphur diluted so as to be breathed without irritation, 
or the exhalations from shallow basins of carbolic acid and alco- 
hol. We may add the further precaution, not to expose to cold, 
wet, nor exhaustion during convalescence from this affection, as 
many cases of irregular course and untoward results have oc- 
curred from the lack of just such care. 

In the treatment of the affection much more reliance is to be 
placed on sound hygienic measures than on medication. The pa- 
tients should be fed liberally on scalded or boiled grain, or wheat- 
bran, and if this can be given from a nose-bag it will soothe and 
relieve the air passages, and greatly hasten the formation of 
matter and recovery. This should be done at least twice a day. 
No less important is the continuous application of warmth and 
moisture to the swelling between the jaws. This may be accom- 
plished by persistent fomentation with warm water, by the appli- 
cation of a poultice in a bag of thin cotton, or, better and more 
conveniently, by enveloping the head in a sheet, with holes cut 
for the ears and eyes, and laced down the middle of the face, and 
inserting a large wet sponge, so that it may lie in contact with 
the swelling. This can be kept saturated with warm water, by 
pouring a little into it occasionally. When the matter ap- 
proaches the surface, and appears to be separated from the finger 
by a thin layer of skin only, it should be freely opened with a 
sharp knife; and the fomentations may be kept up until the sur- 
rounding hardness has entirely disappeared. The swellings in 
unwonted situations should be similarly treated, so as to seek a 
discharge of the matter externally. The formations in internal 



DISEASES PECULIAE TO BREEDING STOCK. 221 

organs are too often fatal, because of the vital importance of the 
structures involved. 

This is a malady through which most horses pass once in their 
lives. In this respect it resembles measles, scarlatina and other 
eruptive fevers of* children. Precisely what are the conditions 
which leads to its development it may be difficult to state in so 
many words, but there can be no doubt that among the many 
predisposing causes change of locality holds a very high place. 
Horses moved from one county or State to another, from a hilly 
to a flat region, or the reverse, from inland to the seaside, or 
from the country to the town, are those in which the disease is 
most apt to be developed. So strong indeed is this influence of 
altered climate that a second and even a third attack may be de- 
termined in the same animal by extensive change of residence. 
In horses, on the other hand, kept continuously in the same local- 
ity, a second attack is very rare. 



DISEASES PECULIAR TO BREEDING STOCK. 
PAET II. 

Prepared expressly for this work by N. H. Paaren, M. D,, 
State Veterinarian of Illinois. 

THE STALLION — EXTERNAL INJURIES. 

The accidents and ailments to which the stallion may be said 
to be especially liable are comparatively few. Among the exter- 
nal injuries to which he is exposed are those he may receive 
while he is about to serve the mare; such as bruises, lacerations, 
sprains, injuries of the sexual organs, etc., and which may be 
caused by the mare's resistance, from want of proper assistance 
of the keeper, or by the too great eagerness and impatience 
of the stallion himself. Among the requirements to his early 
restoration to service, as well as to successful treatment, 
when injured in this manner, is total abstinence from sexual 
intercourse. Minor wounds, or slight hemorrhage may be 



222 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

treated with frequent applications of cold water or mild 
astringent lotions. Considerable bleeding, consequent upon 
more extensive lacerations, may require the use of hot iion 
or ligatures, and that the wounds be closed by stitching 
or by strings of sticking-plaster. Where inflammatory action 
exists, besides internal sedative remedies (aconite, belladonna, 
fifteen to twenty drops of either) use locally either cold or warm 
applications; and when cedemic or dropsical swelling exists ap- 
ply warm aromatic decoctions, frequently renewing the same, 
and exercise the animal several times daily. Extensive or per- 
sistent dropsical swelling of either the sheath or the penis may 
be relieved by longitudinal free lancing and continued warm 
bathing. In cases of profuse suppuration apply astringent lo- 
tions (alum, sulphate of zinc, or acetate of lead ; strength, one 
to twelve of water). Fistulas should be slit open to give free 
escape of matter and facilitate applications of remedies (nitrate 
of silver) to destroy false membrane: thereafter, zinc ointment, 
carbolized cosmoline, etc. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE PENIS. 

It is evidenced by pain, heat, swelling, more or less inability 
to extend or retract the organ, painful urinating, a straddling 
gait, more or less depression of spirit and loss of appetite. Most 
frequently caused by kicks from the mare, injury by hairs of the 
mare's tail obstructing free entrance to the vagina, etc. After 
cleansing the panis and the sheath with warm water and soap, 
apply zinc or lead ointment, or, if much swelling prevails, use 
frequent bathing with hayseed tea, or decoction of other aro- 
matics with vinegar. In case of abscess-formation, besides fre- 
quent attention to cleanliness, use injections of solutions of 
sulphate of zinc or sulphate of copper (from one to two drachms 
to a half-pint of water). If the stallion is unable to retract or 
retain the penis within the sheath, it will be ner'essary to sup- 
port the member in a horizontal position by means of a broad 
linen bandage or sling fastened over the loins. The diet should 
be loosening and spare. 



DISEASES PECULIAE TO BKEEDING STOCK. 223 

INFLAMMATION OF THE TESTICLES. 

This is evidenced by a stiff, straddling gait, or more or less 
lameness; swelling and pain of one or both testicles, including the 
testicular cord; total loss of spirit and ability to service, and 
which latter condition, in severe cases, may become permanent 
on account of structural disorganization of the testicles. Treat- 
ment should be conducted as indicated in the previous case. The 
testicles should be supported by the use of a suspensorium. 
Scarification must never be employed in enlargement of the 
testicles, except in the case of abscess-formation. Chronic 
enlargement or induration should be counteracted by the use of 
weak mercurial ointment, to which may later be added a small 
proportion (one to twelve or sixteen) of iodine; but this latter 
ehould never be used while local pain or inflammation remains. 

CANCEB OF THE PENIS AND THE SHEATH. 

This condition is generally mistaken for warts, on account 
of some similarity of appearance. It is generally located at 
the edges or inside of the sheath and at extremity or spongy 
body of the penis. In appearance it is a tumor of varying size, 
with a granulated or sprouting surface, of a dirty red color, the 
edges of which bleed on slight provocation, and from which a 
fetid ichor is discharged. The skin and underlying tissue sur- 
rounding these tumors are generally more or less thickened 
and knotty. When located near the course of the urethra 
there may be more or less difficulty in urinating. There is a 
possibility of this disease being transmitted by the genital parts 
of the stallion to the mare, and vice versa. The best course 
of treatment consists in the entire disintegration of the tumor 
by aid of the red-hot iron, and the subsequent application of 
ordinary healing remedies. There is a kind of tumor affecting 
the genital organs, which is of a non-contagious nature, called 
sarcoma, and which may be removed by the same means. 

PBOLAPSE, OK PABALYSIS OF THE PENIS. 

Prolapse may exist without a paralytic condition of the 
organ, or it may be due to paralysis, either local or affecting 



224 A TEEATISE ON HOKSE-BKEEDING. 

other portions of the posterior part of the body. We will, how- 
ever, confine our attention to the local condition. Prolapse, 
with or without co-existing paralysis, may be caused by various 
local injuries of a mechanical nature, and it may co-exist with, 
or be due to inflammation of the penis, to rheumatism, etc. 
Depending upon possible complications of a more general or 
extensive nature, the condition may be either of temporary 
duration, amenable to treatment, or it may result in perma- 
nently disqualifying the animal for stud services. One of the 
first requirements to successful treatment consists in the use of 
a suspensorium or loin bandage. To the dorsum and sides of 
the penis apply tincture of iodine, or turpentine, once daily, by 
light penciling of the parts, and internally administer spinal 
stimulants, such as nux vomica (fifteen grains to a scruple, 
twice daily) with Valeriana (one ounce of the powdered root). 

SCKOTAL HERNIA. 

The descent of a portion of the intestines, through the inguinal 
canal, into the scrotum or bag which contains the testicles, is 
sometimes met with in entire males of all ages. It may be con- 
genital, or acquired soon after birth, or at any time in after life 
from a variety of causes, such as violent efforts, jumping, kick- 
ing, violent throwing or rolling during attacks of colic or 
bloating, too frequent and excited copulation, violent exer- 
tions in pulling heavy loads, especially up-hill, etc. Some- 
times the descent of intestine into the scrotum is not due to any 
of the causes named, but may occur from a relaxed condition of 
the abdominal muscles, or a too spacious inguinal canal (abdomi- 
nal ring). In young colts scrotal hernia does not always mani- 
fest itself by sudden or violent symptoms; in fact, the animal 
may to all appearance suffer no inconvenience; biit as there will 
always be danger of strangulation, with its sequels of inflamma- 
tion of the bowels, gangrene of the incarcerated portion and 
death of the animal, such cases should be attended to as soon as 
they are discovered, both in young and old. Whenever colic 
occurs in stallions a careful examination of the contents of the 



DISEASES PECULIAE TO BKBEDING STOCK. 225 

scrotum should never be omitted. It will be evident to any think- 
ing man that, in a case where violent symptoms of colic are in- 
duced by strangulation of a portion of intestine in the scrotum, 
the administration of medicines, instead of remedying the case, 
will only tend to hasten a fatal termination. The cause of the 
symptoms being of a mechanical origin and nature, can be 
remedied only by mechanical means, aided by proper medicinal 
adjuncts. In young colts, when no untoward symptoms exist in 
connection with scrotal hernia, the return of the intestinal con- 
tents of the scrotum may be effected by taxis; that is, by laying 
the animal on its back, raising the hinder part of the body from 
the ground as far as possible, and by gentle manipulation of the 
scrotal contents cause their return to the abdominal cavity. The 
animal should then be laid on its side and allowed to rise as 
quietly as possible. A return of intestine into the scrotum may 
not occur again; but should it happen more than twice it will be 
best to castrate the animal without unnecessary delay, the removal 
of the testicles being done by the so-called covered operation. It 
would be highly improper and dangerous to castrate such an ani- 
mal in the usual manner by opening the tunica vaginalis (so- 
called striffing or white sack), which is in direct connection with 
the abdominal cavity. Scrotal hernia in older animals should be 
treated in a similar manner; that is, the animal should be 
made resistless by the proper administration of anaesthetics, 
probably the least dangerous of which is the following combina- 
tion, which is almost invariably used by myself in all animals, 
viz.: One part of alcohol, two parts of chloroform, and three 
parts of sulphuric ether, administered by saturating a sponge, 
which should then be held close to (not against) the lower nostril, 
while a towel or an empty sack is laid loosely over the sponge 
and half of the head. Both nostrils should never be covered by 
the sponge. When entirely under the influence of the anaesthetic 
the animal should be laid on its back; sacks filled with oats or 
packed with hay should be placed under the crupper and loins to 
raise that part of the body from the ground; equilibrium of the 
body being maintained by strong hands holding the four limbs; 



226 A TEEATISE ON HOESE-BEEEDING. 

the oiled hand and arm inserted through the rectum; and by 
manipulation of the intestines, simultaneously with judicious 
manipulation of the contents of the scrotum, the intestinal con- 
tents of the latter may be entirely returned to the abdominal 
cavity. Should, however, these efforts prove unsuccessful nothing 
remains but to resort to a surgical operation, the particulars of 
which I omit describing, as such an operation could be success- 
fully performed only by a veterinary expert. Should the contents 
of the scrotum be successfully returned, without surgical opera- 
tion, it would be prudent to castrate the stallion by the covered 
method, to avoid future similar occurrence. Many a fine stallion, 
supposed to have been affected with spasmodic colic, undoubtedly 
suffers the most excruciating pains of strangulated scrotal hernia, 
and dies in the hands of unsuspecting owners or attendants, with 
the real cause of suffering and death undiscovered, for which rea- 
son I have discussed this subject at length. 

WATBEBAG, SO-CALLED. 

This condition may exist as a simple dropsical (oedematous) 
infiltration of the connective tissue of the scrotum, and as one of 
the sequels of influenza or other internal diseases. Water or 
serum, contained in the scrotal sac, together with the testicles, 
may be the result of local injury or abdominal dropsy. In old 
stallions this condition may, and does often, co-exist with degen- 
eration or chronic diseases of the testicles. It is also met with in 
young, weakly colts, as a result of general debility. Simple drop- 
sical infiltration may be treated locally by stimulating applica- 
tions, and internally by the administration of diuretics, suc- 
ceeded with tonics, liberal keep and proper daily exercise. Ac- 
cumulation of water in the scrotal cavity may be returned to the 
abdomen by placing the animal on its back and raising the 
hinder quarters; and the absorption and elimination of the fluid 
may then be accomplished by the administration of laxative or 
diuretic remedies, succeeded with tonics, liberal keep and exer- 
cise. When the aqueous accumulation in the scrotum is due to, 
and co-exists with, degeneration or enlargement of one or both 
testicles, castration may be resorted to. 



DISEASES PECULIAR TO BREEDING STOCK. 227 

EXCESSIVE VENEEY (Satyriasis). 
A condition in which excessive sexual excitement occurs at 
frequent intervals, even almost uninterruptedly, may exist in 
both sexes. In the stallion ejaculation of semen may occur dur- 
ing the paroxysm of erection and excitement, or just before 
sexual connection. The condition manifests itself mainly when 
the stallion is kept within the sight or smell of mares, or in the 
same stable; seldom when he is kept absolutely secluded. It 
may be a consequence of idleness, together with a want of sexual 
intercourse, and especially when the animal is kept on very rich 
and stimulating food; otherwise, a constitutional predisposition 
to excessive virility may exist. The evil may be remedied by 
seclusion, more frequent sexual intercourse, less nutritious food, 
the administration of occasional laxatives; also, by the use of 
bromide of potassium in two-drachm doses; or camphor with 
nitrate of potassium, respectively one and two-drachm doses. 
Castration as a last resort. 

NON-EMISSION OF SEMEN — "PKOUDNESS," SO-CALLED. 

The question is frequently asked: "What causes a stallion to 
dismount proud? " or "What can be done for a 'proud' stallion?" 
This condition is a variety of sterility in which sexual inter- 
course is not finished with an ejaculation of semen, either 
because that fluid does not enter the urethra, or because its 
forcible expulsion is prevented by some obstacle in the course 
of the urethra. Non- emission may be congenital or acquired, 
and permanent or temporary. It may be, and probably most 
frequently is, the result of either masturbation or over-taxation 
of the sexual organs. Dr. Howe says on this subject: " The 
power of erection remains intact, but the patient exerts himself 
in vain to produce an orgasm. This condition may continue a 
few weeks, disappear and then return. It is by no means a per- 
manent condition, but it may lead to sterility and impotence. 
Some writers say that it is due to spasm of the orifices of the 
ejaculatory duct, which prevents the passage of the seminal fluid 
into the urethra; others, that it is due to a lack of secretion in 



228 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

the various glands. This latter view, however, is not tenable, 
because such patients are subject to nocturnal pollutions as a 
result of lascivious dreams. It is more than probable that there 
is a temporary paralysis of sensation existing in the prostatic 
portion of the urethra, in the ducts, and perhaps in the vesicles. 
This lack of sensation prevents the reflex muscular action neces- 
sary for the propulsion of the semen." 

This latter view coincides with my opinion stated above as to 
the most frequent causes of this condition in stallions, namely: 
sexual abuse or over-taxation; and the treatment which I have 
generally recommended, and which has been most successful, has 
had for its object to restore the sexual powers to their normal 
condition by remedies which tone up the system at large and 
excite the reflex activity of the genito-spinal center. Thus the 
following combination may be used twice or thrice daily during 
one week, viz.: Half an ounce each of tincture of iron and 
Fowler's solution of arsenic, and two drachms of tincture of nux 
vomica, given in half a pint of flaxseed tea or water sweetened 
with molasses. During the following week may be given, twice 
or thrice daily, half an ounce of fluid extract of damiana and 
one ounce of tincture of Valeriana, in half a pint of sweetened 
water. Meanwhile, frequent bathing with cold water should be 
applied along the urethra, from the anus downwards; and the 
stallion should be withheld from service during at least one 
month. 

SEXUAIi SLUGGISHNESS. 

Among the causes of sexual indifference in the presence of 
the opposite sex in heat may be mentioned too long continued 
abstinence or sexual restraint, over-taxation of the male sexual 
organs, abnormal condition of these, other internal diseases, 
insufiBcient or innutritions food, general debility, obesity, etc. 
Treatment consists in the removal or avoidance of the causes; 
when indicated, nutritive and stimulating food, liberty out-doors 
with mares. To force sexual activity by stimulating or irritating 
nostrums does not generally prove permanently successful. 



DISEASES PECULIAE TO BREEDING STOCK. 229 

8PERMATORBHCEA. 

This is a condition in which the semen is discharged without 
friction of the male organ. It is one of the consequences of 
masturbation, and may also result from debility of sexual organs 
from over-taxation of these. Treatment consists in the preven- 
tion or avoidance of the causes, isolation, frequent cold applica- 
tions locally, and the administration internally of tonic and 
astringent remedies, such as iron, sulphate of zinc or sulphate of 
copper, in one-drachm doses. 

VESICULAE ERUPTIONS ON THE PENIS. 

Phlyctenoid vesicular eruptions on the penis are sometimes 
met with in stallions, and are by some regarded as a non- 
malignant species of chancre. It is a pellucid vesicle containing 
a serous fluid, which sometimes also occurs in young stallions 
that never have been used for service. The vesicles, after burst- 
ing, leave small ulcers, which readily heal when cleanliness of 
the parts is attended to. Otherwise they may become more or 
less aggravated, and incapacitate the animal for service. During 
the eruption of the vesicles more or less local pain and inflam- 
mation exists. An animal thus affected should not be used for 
service. Treatment consists in frequent bathing, first with a 
solution of one part of Goulard's extract and ten parts of water. 
When inflammation has subsided use frequent applications of a 
solution of alum in water, and cleanse the parts with soap and 
water. In aggravated or protracted cases use frequent bathing 
with a solution of one part of chloride of lime in twelve to 
fifteen parts of cold water. Internal remedies are generally not 
necessary. 

FOUL SHEATH. 

Accumulation of sebaceous matter, cuticular desquammation 
and other deposits within the cavity or folds of the sheath, often 
cause considerable local irritation and consequently more or less 
swelling of the sheath. This latter condition may also be due to 
accumulation of serum in the areolar or subcellular tissue, in 
consequence of local or general debility, or from some consti- 



230 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

tutional cause; and the swelling of the sheath, from whatever 
cause, may exist to such an extent as to impede the extension or 
protrusion of the penis, and cause the animal to acquire the habit 
of discharging the urine within the sheath. The irritation 
already existing within thus becomes aggravated; decomposition 
of the accumulated greasy substances is thereby enhanced and 
putrescence and fetor ensue. During summer this may at- 
tract flies, which "blow" the parts and cause accumulation of 
myriads of maggots within the sheath. Continued irritation 
may produce more or less local inflammation and ulceration, and 
ultimately impair the general condition of the horse. When 
soap is used in cleansing the parts they should be rinsed with 
clean water thereafter. Oil or greasy substances should never be 
applied after cleansing, as is frequently done, for these substances 
are apt to decompose and cause renewed irritation. If the parts 
were for some time daily cleansed and then bathed with a solu- 
tion of chlorinated lime, in the proportion of two ounces to a 
quart of cold water, gradual improvement and a subsequently 
permanent healthy condition would be likely to result. The use 
of this solution would also prevent the appearance of maggots. 
The horse's general condition should be improved by liberal 
keep, the administration of tonic remedies internally, and, if he 
is used for work, by lessening or discontinuing the same for a 
sufficient length of time. 

MASTUKBATION. 

It occurs to me that I should not close my remarks on the 
most common ailments to which the stallion is subject without 
referring to an evil with which I presume all of my readers are 
familiar. In fact, the subject of masturbation, or self-abuse, is 
one of considerable interest and importance, not only to horse- 
men, but to all breeders of live stock. It is a remarkable fact 
that our literature on live-stock matters almost entirely ignores 
the subject. There certainly can not be any impropriety in dis- 
cussing this matter in a work entirely devoted to the interest of 
breeding, especially when we consider the often serious results 



DISEASES PECULIAR TO BEEEDING STOCK. 231 

of the practice and the inconvenience and trouble it often causes 
during the season of training or when, for other reasons, the 
stallion is withheld from service. I remember several instances 
where the result upon the health and usefulness of stallions was 
of so serious a nature that castration was resorted to as the only 
effective remedy. The too frequent practice of masturbation 
by, and its evil effects upon, the little stallion King Phillip, with 
a record of 2:21, was the reason given for castrating him. 

There are various causes of this habit. ^'Idleness begets vice," 
is an adage applicable to a great extent in the case of self- abuse in 
the males of our domestic animals, many of which, especially the 
better-bred and more valuable ones, being fed on stimulating 
food and kept idle most of their time. But besides idleness 
and restraint of sexual intercourse, there are other causes of 
the habit, among which may be mentioned special generic dis- 
turbances and excessive generic potency, and which are more 
frequently met with in the bull than in the stallion. 

When masturbation is practiced frequently organic disease of 
the testicles may result; also, weakness of the loins, loss of power 
of propulsion, loss of flesh and general emaciation; spermator- 
rhcea, as well as so-called clap, besides impotence, may super- 
vene, and these so much the sooner if the animal is kept on low 
diet, with the idea of thus lowering his sexual excitement. 

The subject of prevention is of course one of great impor- 
tance. If the animal practices masturbation by the aid of his 
own body or limbs, it is next to impossible to prevent the same. 
Chastisements are of no use, and shame is out of the ques- 
tion. Among the remedial measures are unrestrained liberty 
outdoors, but which, especially with the stallion, is not generally 
practicable; also moderate work in the field or on the road, and 
regular but moderate use in the stud or herd. The main object 
is to prevent the exercise of the habit, if possible, but no means 
have been devised by which this can always be done successfully, 
especially when the habit has been long indulged in. The means 
adopted in human practice can not very well be carried out with 
the same result. Among these we may, however, mention occa- 



232 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BEEEDING. 

sional blisteriug of the prepuce, or ringing it with silver wire, 
somewhat similar to ringing of the nose in swine. AVhile the 
habit, by these or similar means, and by constant watching, or 
by applying a straight-jacket during the night, may prove suc- 
cessful in the human family, such stringent measures can not be 
effectually applied in the case of animals, as the chances are 
that when the restrictions or applications are omitted, or after 
awhile, the animal will return to its old habits. Internal reme- 
dies, such as bromide of potassium, continued for some time, 
reduces sexual desire and potency, but it is also apt to produce 
great weakness and emaciation, and could not be continued 
without danger for any length of time. Faradization of the 
spine has in some instances been used with benefit against self- 
abuse, but this is also likely to be of only temporary benefit; 
and, so far as I know, there is no sure cure for the evil. In in- 
veterate cases, where the effects of masturbation have extended 
so far that the animal refuses to notice the opposite sex in heat, 
nothing remains but to castrate him and thus preserve his use- 
fulness for other purposes. 

CEYPTOECHIDS ("eIDGLINGS," SO-CALLED ). 

In common parlance, the appellation of ridgling is given to a 
stallion in which either one or both testicles have failed to de- 
scend into the scrotum. In the cases where one testicle has 
descended, the animal may serve the purposes of a sire and prove 
as fertile as if both testicles had descended. But the testicle or 
testicles that fail to descend into the scrotum, and are retained in 
the abdomen or the groin, are generally small and undeveloped, 
and now and then atrophied through fibrous or fatty degenera- 
tion. As a result of these malpositions or morbid changes, 
cryptorchids have generally been considered to be absolutely 
sterile, although they were known to have strong sexual desires 
and enjoy the capacity for copulation and ejaculation. While as 
a rule the ejaculated fluid is devoid of the fecundating germs, 
termed spermatozoae, exceptional instances have occurred where 
such males have proved fertile, and where consequently the fluid 
must have contained spermatozoas. 



DISEASES PECULIAE TO BKEEDTNG STOCK. 233 

THE BEOOD MAKE — BARRENNESS. 

A mare should not be considered barren because she does not 
get in foal, even after repeated service by one certain stallion, 
for it often occurs that a change of stallion proves effective. 
The causes of barrenness in mares are numerous, and among the 
most frequent are a phlegmatic temperament, or the reverse, ex- 
cessive sexual excitement; also, reduced vitality, due to poverty 
of constitution, overwork, innutritions food; or the reverse con- 
dition, that of obesity; too great sexual excitement and violent 
efforts in the approaching stallion, especially if he is large and 
powerful, while the mare is young and this her first experience; or 
the reverse, when the mare is small, old, overworked, in poor con- 
dition and low-spirited. Among causes of a mechanical nature 
maybe mentioned obliteration or stricture of the vagina; super- 
sensitiveness, with spasmodic closure of the vagina; vaginal or 
uterine tumors; engorgement or induration of the neck of the 
womb; obliteration or great narrowing of the canal of the neck of 
the womb, or its closure by glutinous exudation; occlusion of the 
fallopian tubes (which connect the womb with the ovaries); mor- 
bid or abnormal condition of the ovaries. All morbid dis- 
charges, due. to retention of a portion or all cf the after-birth, or 
to catarrh or leucorrhoei (so-called whites), effectively prevents 
pregnancy. I coincide with the opinion of experienced breeders, 
that pasturage upon red clover is among the fertile causes of 
barrenness in mares; and I believe that impotence in mares in 
this case is due to the honey contained in the flowers, this opin- 
ion being based upon the fact that a continued consumption of 
pure honey will produce impotence in both sexes of mankind. 
Nymphomania is also a cause of barrenness. 

Many of the conditions named above are of a permanent 
character; others are amenable to treatment, and may be suc- 
cessfully avoided, remedied or removed. Thus, too great excit- 
ability in the mare may be overcome by starving her during 
twenty-four hours (not withholding drinking water), and driving 
her till she begins to tire, just before service. The removal of 
tumors should be effected by surgical means; closure of the neck 
16 



234 A TEEATIRE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

of the womb may be overcome by digital manipulation, which is 
best effected during heat. The cases of barrenness which are 
most likely to yield to treatment are those where signs of heat 
occur at regular intervals, as here the cause is generally of a 
mechanical nature. But when the animal never shows any sign 
of heat the prospects of its appearance are very unfavorable. 
Sexual energy may be restored in mares that have been over- 
worked, or are in a poor condition from want of proper nutri- 
tion, by a reversal to freedom from work and liberal keep upon 
nutritious and stimulating food. In phlegmatic mares, or such 
where sexual sluggishness or indifference exists, if not due to 
obesity, they should be fed on rich and stimulating food, often 
changed, occasionally steamed or cooked, among which may be 
mixed a handful of hempseeds, twice daily. By way of experi- 
ment, fluid extract of damiana may be tried in half-ounce doses, 
together with tincture of cantharides in half -ounce doses, mixed 
with half a pint of flaxseed tea, and such a dose given twice or 
thrice daily during a week, and repeated with intervals of one 
week during three weeks; meanwhile letting the mare once or 
twice weekly come near the stallion, or be placed near him in the 
stable. The medicines may be bought at wholesale price by buy- 
ing a pound or pint of each: otherwise the experiment will be too 
costly. 

NYMPHOMANIA. 

Excessive venery exists in the female as well as in the male, 
and is evidenced by an insatiable desire for sexual intercourse, 
the mare appearing to be almost constantly in heat. This condi- 
tion has several causes for its existence, among which may be 
mentioned undue irritation or congestion of the ovaries, the 
fallopian tubes, or the womb, which causes the secretion of a pe- 
culiar irritating fluid. Scrofulous affections of the generative 
organs, or tuberculosis, especially of the body of the womb and 
its divergences, are known to be frequent causes of nympho- 
mania. The state of the generative organs, under the last-named 
causes, is such as to render conception impossible; while at the 
same time the irritation induced by the morbid secretions con- 



MSEASES PECULIAR TO BREEDING STOCK. 235 

tinually induces an excessive and unnatural sexual desire. Under 
the existence of any of these conditions gestation could not 
exist, neither could conception be accomplished. A mare affected 
with nymphomania is a continual disturber of the peace and 
quiet in the stable, and often dangerous while in harness. When 
this condition has existed only a short time conception may be 
brought about by spare keep, loosening food and laxative medi- 
cines. Two drachms each of camphor and saltpetre, given 
morning and evening during a we^k, often allays the excitement 
and the irritation, when the stallion should be admitted; but it is 
totally useless to admit the stallion while the excitement of nym- 
phomania exists. In some exceptional instances the amputation 
of the clitoris has proved successful. In old offenders tlie last 
remedy is spaying, and with that the nuisance is abated; but the 
operation is often dangerous to the life of the mare. 

TUMORS WITHIN THE VAGINA AND UTERUS. 

These may occur of various kinds and sizes, and frequent ly 
have a narrow neck. Their presence may be productive of slimy 
or bloody discharges of more or less offensive odor. When nu- 
merous or large they may cause prolapse of the vagina, difficult 
urinating, more or less frequent straining, and may hinder or 
obstruct copulation. Their successful removal, by twisting, liga- 
tion, dissection, or by means of the ecraseur, will of course de- 
pend upon their location, their shape, form of basis or attach- 
ment, etc. 

LEUCORRH(EA, OR SO-CALLED WHITES. 

This consists of a more or less copious slimy or i)urulent dis- 
charge, originating in the vagina or in tlie womb, and may be 
acute and catarrhal or chronic. Among its causes may be men- 
tioned exposure to cold after foaling, other acute or clironic dis- 
eases, such as influenza, glanders, etc , or the presence of poljpus, 
melanotic or other kinds of tumors within the vagina or uterus, 
the existence of recto-vaginal fistula, cancer of the womb, atrophy 
of the womb, etc. Depending upon the cause, the treatment should 
be either local or general. If the animal is in poor condition. 



236 A TREATISE ON HOESE-BREEDING. 

treatment should be assisted by liberal keep on nutritious food. 
Among internal remedies may be mentioned juniper berries, 
savin, ergot, resin, common turpentine, muriatic acid, oak bark, 
of which the following formula may serve as an example: Take 
half an ounce of common turpentine, twenty drops of muriatic 
acid, two drachms of powdered ginger, and ten ounces of decoc- 
tion of oak bark. Give such a dose once a day during a week. 
In cases where the discharge is very profuse sugar of lead and oil 
of turpentine may be used, as follows: Take one drachm of 
sugar of lead, dissolve it in a sufficient (luantity of warm water, 
add thereto two drachms of oil of turpentine, previously beaten 
into an emulsion with one yolk of egg; shake this mixture well 
together with half a pint of flaxseed tea, and give such a dose 
morning and evening during a week. The local treatment 
should be conducted as follows: By inserting the hand it may be 
ascertained whether the discharge proceeds from the womb, 
which is likely to be the case if the cervix or neck of the womb 
is wide open. In this case injection of warm water should be 
made into this organ by means of a long, flexible catheter, with 
a view of washing out the contents; after which, by the same 
means, make injections twice or thrice daily of tar water, clear 
lime water, or a solution of sulphate of zinc (half an ounce to 
each pint of water). A change of remedy often hastens the cure 
of such cases; wherefore, a solution of sugar of lead (two 
drachms to each pint of water) may be used every second week. 
The contents of the womb should, as far as possible, be with- 
drawn before the remedies are injected. In case the disease is 
confined to the vagina the cleansing and application of medicine 
may be done by the us3 of an ordinary syringe that will hold at 
least half a pint. For uterine application the capacity of the 
syringe should be from a pint to a quart. If the morbid dis- 
charge from the genital parts is due to the presence of polypi, 
or any other kind of tumors, of course the internal as well as 
local treatment above suggested will be useless, as a ijermanent 
cure under such circumstances would wholly depend upon 
whether these tumors were removable or not. 



DISEASES PECULIAR TO BREEDING STOCK. 237 

COLT FOUNDER, SO-CALLED. 

Laminitis, or so-called founder, after foaling, is generall}^ 
more troublesome or dangerous than the same disease occurring 
at other times, and from other causes. It is sometimes compli- 
cated with metritis, or inflammation of the womb, or some other 
excitant malady, which should be ascertained, and treatment of 
such complications directed according to their nature. (See in- 
flammation of the womb. ) Among the causes of colt founder is a 
plethoric condition, resulting from improper diet and regimen 
during the last months of pregnancy. Mares subjected to 
moderate work and light, nutritious diet, are seldom affected with 
this malady, while those kept idle and fed largely on corn or rich 
food are more commonly affected. In some instances breeders 
are known to have given their brood mares large and nutritious 
mashes, with the intention of promoting a large flow of milk. 
When such a diet is combined with total inactivity, as is common, 
with a mistaken view of avoiding abortion, a state of plethora is 
readily induced, which has a great tendency to the development 
of local inflammations, and among these the so-called colt 
founder. The treatment should, from the beginning of the evil, 
be like that adopted for the same disease generally, but more 
energetic, both locally and internally. Saline laxatives (a pound 
of Epsom or Glauber's salts, etc.), succeeded with sedatives 
(aconite, fifteen to twenty- drop doses, not exceeding six doses at 
intervals of two hours), and poultices applied to the feet, after 
the shoes have been removed and the edge of the hoof has been 
pared down, leaving the sole and the frog intact, so that the 
bearing of the animal's weight comes most upon the central part 
of the foot. Not the least effective remedy is that of allowing 
the colt to suck, and, if necessary, additional stripping of the 
udder, with a view of promoting increased secretion of the 
mammary glands. In some cases, with acute inflammation and 
high fever, no milk is secreted; nevertheless the sucking should 
never be omitted. The return of milk generally indicates a 
successful issue. A mare subject to such affection should not be 
bred so as to have her colt too early in the year; for if she could 



238 A TKEATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

be turned out on a good pasture before foaling the trouble would 
most likely be entirely avoided. She must not be fed so as to 
become plethoric or fat. Give good oats, occasional soft mashes, 
with bran and flaxseed-meal, say at least once a week, and avoid 
corn during the last six weeks. Keep constantly some common 
salt placed within reach, in a separate small trough, and do not 
mix it among the food. The quantity consumed may safely be 
left to the animal's instinct, but access to good drinking water, 
at least thrice daily, should be given. When too early for grass, 
a roomy, well-littered box-stall, or comfortable, closed shed, 
should be allowed during the last two months of pregnancy. 
Give gentle exercise daily, or liberty out-doors during daytime, 
when the weather is moderate and dry. Accidents from company 
with other horses, by kicking, etc., may be avoided by provid- 
ing a small inclosed dry yard adjacent to her shed or box-stall. 

tEDEMA DURING PBEGNANCY. 

During the latter part of the period of gestation the mare is 
subject to dropsical swelling, especially of the udder and along 
the under surface of the chest and abdomen. Such local accu- 
mulations, and consequent more or less stiffness, generally disap- 
pear after foaling; but sometimes they are apt to become quite 
extensive, and may call for treatment. Such mares should never 
be kept tied up in a stall, but should be given the same facdlities 
and liberty as recommended in the preceding paragraph, with 
access to common salt, as stated. Friction by hand-rubbing, or 
a stiff brush, and the application of highwine, or spirits of cam- 
phor, are among the remedies employed in such cases. Laxative 
remedies, as well as remedies to excite the kidneys to action, are 
not safe to employ during the latter part of gestation, as they are 
apt to produce abortion. Vegetable tonics, such as powdered 
gention root, may be given among food once or twice a day dur- 
ing a few days to a week, in one-ounce doses. 

SUPEEIMPKEGN ATION . 

According to its nature, superimpregnation is divided into 
two forms, technically termed superfoetation and superfoecunda- 



DISEASES PECULIAR TO BEEEDING STOCK. 239 

tion. Cases of the first form occur after one or more sexual 
connections during the peiiod of one and the same heat, and the 
consequence is the production of twins or triplets. The second 
form appears after coital connection during the time of any sub- 
sequent period of evolution or heat: and though there may, in 
such a case, be two or more foetuses developing within the uterus 
at the same time, they can not be regarded as twins or triplets, 
because their natural term of gestation terminates unequally, the 
difference depending upon the length of time that passed be- 
tween the two different acts of conception; and, besides, if no 
accidental or detrimental influences should occur during the 
original term of gestation, they would be born of two entirely 
independent acts of pai'turition. Superim])regnation, in its two 
forms, may occur after sexual connection with one or with sev- 
eral males. The difference in time between the two acts of 
parturition, in cases of superfoecundation, in recorded cases, has 
been from two to six months. 

HEAT DUBING PREGNANCY. 

As a rule, when conception has taken place, the regular periods 
of heat terminate, and do not reappear till after parturition. 
But there are exceptions to this rule, and these are due to the fact 
that during gestation an ovule may mature, and, as a conse- 
quence, heat will appear. This may happen in all species of 
animals, and during any period of gestation. If during such 
heat sexual intercourse should happen, conception may take 
place again, constituting superfoecundation. 

LACERATION OF THE RECTUM. 

Occasionally reports have come to hand concerning cases 
where, during the service of the stallion, the rectum became 
lacerated. These reports invariably contained statements of a 
fatal termination. While laceration of the rectum may happen 
during the normal performance of coition, it is, however, more 
likely to occur when, as sometimes happens, the penis enters the 
rectum instead of the vagina. Laceration of the rectum during 



240 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

coition may be considered as incurable and generally causes 
death of the mare. 

ABOBTTON. 

The causes of abortion are numerous. Among these may be 
mentioned colic, violent external injuries, violent exertions, 
heroic medicines, musty food, rancid oil- cake, rich and stimulat- 
ing food in liberal quantities, impure water, etc.: also, disease 
of the foetus and its enveloping membranes, and a predisposi- 
tion after previous abortion. Abortion does not always occur 
immediately, but frequently after several weeks of prepara- 
tion; and treatment to prevent abortion is useless after the act 
has commenced. When it is known that an animal has received 
an injury, or an exciting cause has been in operation that might 
produce abortion, some preventive treatment may be adopted, 
such as small doses of camphor (a scruple to half a drachm) 
with opium (one scruple) twice or thrice daily during one to 
three days; or half-drachm doses of powdered sulphate of iron; 
this latter mixed among food twice a day for a few days. 

DIFFICULT PAETUBITION. 

As before stated the mare should, towards the time of foaling, 
be placed in comfortable, roomy quarters by herself. She should 
not be interfered with when foaling, unless there should appear 
to be unnatural presentation, unusual length of time or other 
difficulty; and when assistance appears to be necessary prepara- 
tions should be made to facilitate the same. All stable imple- 
ments, loose troughs and buckets should be removed, and clean 
bedding should be furnished. A bucket of warm water and sponge, 
and oil to lubricate the hand and aim before insertion, should 
be at hand, as well as a few flat and pliable light ropes, and 
such obstetrical instruments as may be required. A few strong 
hands, that may be necessary for assistance, should also be 
present. The mare should be haltered and held by an assistant. 
The hand and arm should be oiled, for the purpose of first 
emptying the rectum of possible contents, as should also the uri- 
nary bladder, by gentle compression or by the aid of a catheter, 



DISEASES PECUNIAE TO BREEDING STOCK. 241 

The hand and arm should then be washed, and it should be 
remembered that if finger rings are worn they should be removed 
before the hand is introduced into the genital parts; and if the 
finger-nails are long they should be shortened. 

The complications or unnatural presentations are very vari- 
ous; but a few of the most common will be considered here, as 
the more complicated casas will require skilled veterinay assist- 
ance. The usual and proper presentation of the foal is with br.th 
fore legs first, and next, resting upon these, the head will appear. 
In such a case help is not called for, unless the colt be a very 
large one, or the mare small with a narrow pelvis, when a little 
assistance may be carefully given, by gently drawing upon the 
legs after the head is well forward. But if there should appear 
only one fore leg, or one or both hind legs, or the head is pre- 
sented without the legs, or if the legs appear with the head bent 
down and inwards between them, or is bent backwards, arsist- 
ance should be rendered without delay. It is generally necessary 
in such cases to return the foal, but this should be done only 
between the throes of the mare, and with care not to injure the 
foal. 

One of the most common forms of irregular presentations is 
the one in which both fore feet appear, with the head doubled 
back or to one side. Before returning the foal a flat or pliable 
rope should be fastened to each of the fore legs above the fet- 
locks. Pressure should then be made against the breast of the 
foal, and usually the head will then corae into line, if the foal is 
pushed far enough in. The ropes on the feet are applied to 
secure them in case they should slip into a wrong position, and 
actual pulling, if any should become necessary after the foal is 
brought into position, should never be done by these ropes, but 
by the feet and the head, and not between the labor pains, but 
only when the mare herself helps. 

Should the head be presented without the fore legs a slip- 
noose of soft cord should be applied around the lower jaw. The 
head should then be pushed inwards as far as possible, and the 
feet, one by one, drawn forward into position and secured with 



242 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 

soft rope, as above stated. The head should then, by aid of the 
hand and partly by the rope, be secured and placed upon the fore 
legs, when gentle traction, not by the ropes, should be proceeded 
with as in the foregoing case. It will be useless to attempt to 
bi'ing the foal forth with the head alone protruding, nor should 
the attempt be made, as the life of the colt will thus be 
endangered. 

In the case where only one fore leg is presented, the other one 
extending inwards, and the head pressed against the pelvic bone, 
the soft cord should be applied around the protruding leg; then 
the hand, armed with a soft slip-noose, should secure this around 
the lower jaw, after which pressure should be made against the 
breast and the foal pushed in so far as to allow the head to be 
placed in position by an assistant gently pulling on the rope 
attached around the jaw. Then the other fore leg is to be secured 
and brought forward, whereupon moderate traction may be made 
upon both legs and the head, but not by the ropes. If the expul- 
sive pains of the mare are strong the tightly impacted state of 
the head will offer considerable difficulty in manipulation. 

It will be useless to describe the more difficult presentations, 
as they will require for their safe delivery, where such is possible, 
a variety of instruments and appliances, with which, and their 
proper use, the breeder can not be expected to be familiar. In 
all difficult cases the farmer or breeder will find it to Ids advan- 
tage to send without delay for a properly educated veterinary 
surgeon, who alone is capable, from his knowledge of the anat- 
omy of the genital organs, of rendering efficient assistance in 
complicated and difficult cases. But it is to be regretted that 
the scarcity of this class of men is so great, wherefore much suf- 
fering and considerable loss must unavoidably be sustained. 

LACERATION OF THE PERINEUM. 

To a mare which such an accident has happened the queer 
name of a "gill-flirt" is vulgarJy applied. The injury consists in 
a laceration of the space between the anus and the genital organs, 
caused by difficult parturition, especially in cases where the foal 



DISEASES PECULIAR TO BEEEDINC4 STOCK. 243 

is very large and the labor pains excessively strong. Treatment, 
by way of uniting the parts by sutures, generally proves unsuc- 
cessful if not instituted immediately after the accident. When 
the laceration has not included the anal sphincter a partial heal- 
ing sometimes occurs with surgical assistance. The condition 
does not unfit a mare for future breeding; but special care is 
required at the time of service to so direct the stallion (who 
should stand on higher ground than the mare if she is large) that 
the vagina proper, and not the rectum, be entered: that is, if the 
entire extent of the perinteum is lacerated, including the anal 
sphincter. In this latter event there is also the unpleasant feat- 
ure of the dung passing from the rectum into the vagina, mak- 
ing the voiding of the same to some extent difficult ar.d more or 
less incomplete and offensive. 



INDEX 



Abortion, 183, 194. 240. 
Accideutiil variations, 23. 

transmissible, 25. 
Adaptation to changed conditions, 15. 

to locality, 17. 
Age. effect of, upon stallions, 159. 

for castration. ITO. 

quality of the get of stallions not 
affected by, KiO. 

suitable for breeding, 19U. 
Altitude, effect of, 22. 
American thoroughbreds, "8. 
Arabian horses, 75. 
Assistance in parturition, 196. 
Atavism, 14, 29. 
Attention to foal at birth, 198. 
Average period of gestation, 181. 
Aversion to mare, how remedied, 156. 

Bakewell's Iloll.^nd importation. 1U3. 

skill as a bn'eder, 11. 
Barrenness, causes of, 172, 233. 
Barrier for trying naares, 155. 
Bashaws, 83. 

Black horses of Flanders, 102. 
Black Lincolnshire horses, 106. 
Bleeding mares before service, 175, 192. 
Blindness transmissible, 142, 205. 
Boulonnais, 129. 
Bowels of the foal, 202, 212. 
Breaking the colt, 89. 
Breed, definition of, 81. 
Breeding draft horses, 137. 

for sex, 65. 

from unsound stock, 136. 

general principles of, 9. 
Breeding in-and-in, 35. 

contradictions of, explained. 11. 

Dai-wiu on, 40. 

effect of on hardiness, 44. 

Gil ton on, 37. 

Herbert Spencer's views on, 39, 42. 

how far it may be practiced, 46. 

tendency of, 36, 44. 

when not dangerous. 42. 
Breedmg stock, selection of, 133. 
Breeding trotting horses, 86. 
Breeds, formed by selection of, 33. 
Breeds, how formed, 31. 

modified by locality. 17. 

modified by temperature, 18. 

of horses, 68, 80, 90, 97, 101, 110, 
116, 128, 



Bridle for unruly stallion, 151. 243. 
Brood mares, 171, 190, 214, 233. 
Brood mares at time of foaling, 198. 
Brood mares, diseases and accidents 
of, 233. 

abortion, 183. 194, 240. 

colt-founder, 237. 

dirticnlt parturition, 240. 

heat (luring pregnancy, 155, 239. 

laceration of the perinaeum. 242. 

laceration of the rectum. 239. 

Icucoi-rlia'a or whites, 235. 

nymphomania, 234. 

(Edema of pregnancy, 238. 

superimpregnation, 238. 

tumors of the vagina, 235. 
Brood mares, confinement of. 215. 

effect of general health of on milk. 
213. 

drying the milk, 186, 200. 

exercise for. 179, 193. 

food to produce milk, 184, 214. 

prcjductive period of, 178. 

stallions and foals, 131. 

working, 179, 183, 198. 
Buffalo trotting course, 85. 

Canadian horses, climatic effect on, 13. 
Cancer of the penis and sheath, 223. 
Cart horses, English, 101. 
Castration, effect of, 168. 

effect of on development. 169. 

when it should be performed, 170. 
Causes of abortion, 183, 194, 240. 
Causes of barrenness, 172. 
Changed conditions, adaptation to, 15. 

effect of, 11. 15, 23. 
Change of climate, effect of, 11, 19. 

effect on generative organs, <i4. 
Clays, 82. 

Cleopatra, in-breeding illustrated by, 36. 
Cleveland Bays, 97. 
Cleveland Bays resuscitated. 101. 
Cleveland P.av Stud Book. 97. 
Climate, effect of on the eye, 206. 

elfect of on the generatiNc ortrans, 64. 

infiueuce of, 11, 19, 18. 
Climatic influences, Prof. Low on, 19. 
Clydesdales, 110. 

and Shire hor.scs blended, 112. 
Clydesdale Stud Book, American, 116. 

Scotch, 112. 
Close stables hurtful, 207. 



246 



INDEX. 



Coach hoivos. liow to broed them, 139 
Color, intliii'iiced l)y iiiu\t.nn{>tioii. 62. 
Color iiiarkiiiKs from frifirht, 62. 
Color of Clydesdales, 115. 

Percheroiis. 117. 

Shire horses. 106. 
Color tnuismitted, 143. 
Colostrum, or lirst milk, 201. 
Colt-fouiuU'r. 237. 
Colts, accidents and diseases of, 201. 

attention to at hirth. 19S. 

(liarrlKTa or sei/urs in. 202. 212. 

effect of exercise on develonment 
of, 187. 

gentling the, ISO. 

teaching to eat. 185 

umbilical hernia in. 211. 

the weanin-j; of. 1S6. 

worms in the intestines of. 216. 
Condition (;f stallion for the stud, 114. 
ConstipatKin (.f the bowels, 201. 
Controlling tlie sex. 65. 
Controlling the stallion when in use, 151. 
Coupe horses, how to breed them, 139. 
Courage of stallions, 169. 
Cows' milk for foals, 185. 
Cross-fertilization. 24. 
Crosses, top most important, 47. 

violent, effect of, 38. 
Crossing and in-breediug, 35. 
Cryptorchids or ridgliugs, 232. 

Dam and sire, rcdative size of, 48. 
Danger from kicklng-mare, 153. 

from o\'er-feeding, 147. 
Darle}- Arabian, 74. 
l):'.rkuess in.jurious to the ej-e, 208. 
Darwin. Chas. F., on in-breediug, 40. 

on reversion, 15. 
Defects transmitted, 136. 
Defluiti(jn of terms, 31. 
Degeneration of the ovaries, 176. 
Develoi nient aft'ectid by exercise. l.-s7. 

bv f(ii;d ;>ud climate*. 12. 

bv castration, 169. 
Diarrhcea in foals. 2U2. 212. 
Difficult iiarturitii n. 196. 240. 
Diseases pcculi:>r to breeding-stock, 204. 
Diseases of brocid mares. See brood 
mares, diseases of. 

of stallions. Sec stallions, diseases 
of. 
Diseased tendencies ti'ausmitted, 172. 
Distemper or stranaies. 218. 
Draft horse, (lualitics (,f a good. 137, 140. 

how to breed the, 139. 
Drugs and medicines for stallions con- 
demned, 144. 
Drying off the brood mare. 186. 200. 
Dwarf breeds, produced by climate, 12. 

Eclipse. 73. 

Effect (la.iicoi 



Effect of change of climate on gener- 
ative organs, 64. 

climate on the eye, 207. 

exercise on development, 187. 

lirst impregnation, 51. 

imagination on color, 62. 

over-feeding. 147, 151. 

pasture upon breeding-mares, 203. 

teething on the eve, 209. 
English Shire and t art horses, 101. 
Eruptions on the penis. 229. 
Evacuation of bowels (;f foal, 202. 
Evolution, effect of on lieredity, 27. 
Exercise for brood mares, 179. 
Excessive feeding dangerous, 147. 
Excessive venary, 227. 
Exercising the stallion, 145. 
p]::tent of hereditary influi-uce, 27. 
External injuries to stal1i(His, 221. 
Eye, hygiene of tlic. 204. 
Eye, the, as affected by the teetli. 209. 

Family, value of, 10. 
Fanners' horses, 138, 141. 
Fatty degeneration of ovaries, 176 
Feeding the stallion, 143. 
Feeding to increase flow of milk, 184. 
194, 199. 

to produce weight, 147. 

the young foal, 184, 186. 
Feet and legs. 135. 
P'ertilitv. affected l)y in-breeding, £8. 

affected bv violent crosses, 38. 

atft'cted by condition of, 159. 
Fighting between stallions, 170. 
Fillies, when old enough to breed, liiO. 
First impregnation, influence of. 51. 

may be ignored, 60. 

Prof. Law on, 52. 
i First milk or colostrum. 201. 
Flanders, black iiones ( f . 102. 
Flemish Idood in Clvdesdales. liu. 



102. 



tnge of cl 



it. of stallion, 159. 

the get, 160. 

;-t>'.llion. 168. 

J on breeds. 11, 19. 



Flemish 1 
Flyingc hilders. 72. 
P'oaliug, period of. ISO. 

rest after, 183. 

signs of, 182, 196. 
Foals, accidents and diseases of, 204. 

cow's milk for. 185. 

diarrim-a or scours. 202. 212. 

hernia or rupture, 211. 

effect of milk on st(.mach of, 214. 

strangles or distemper, 218. 

worms in intestines. -^16. 

attention to at birth, 198, 201. 

feeding young, 184. 

following the dams, 1S4. 

per cent of to mares served. l(;i>. 

weaning, 186. 
Foodfor mareswhile suckling. 184, 21-: 

for the stallion, 144. 

for young foals, 184, 214. 
Formation of ))reeds. 31. 
Foul sheath. 229. 
Foundation for trotting pedigree, 89. 



IXDEX. 



247 



Frank Forrester on Cleveland Baye, 98. 

Galloping mares before service. 191. 
Galtou, Francis, on in-breeding, 37. 
General management of stallions, 143. 
General principles of ])reeding. 9. 
Generative organs affected liy change 

of climate, 64. 
Gentling the foal, 189. 
Gestation, period of, 180. 
Godolphin Arabian, 74. 
Good families, importance of, 10. 
Good pedigree, what is a, 48. 
Grass, effect of on breeding mares, 203. 
Grease or scratches in stallions, 150. 

Hambletonians, 81. 

Hambletcnian (Rysdyk's). number of 

mares served by, 1.57. 
Headstrong stallion, bridle for. 1.51. 
Heat during prcgnancv. 154. ;239. 
Heat or (vstruin if uuircs. 154. 191, 239 
Herbert, H. W.. en Clcvnl md Bavs. 98. 
IlereditL^ry iuilucuce. extent of. 27. 

how far it mny l)e depended on. 29. 
Hereditary qualities, trausniissiou of. 9. 
Hernia, vmibilica). 211. 

scrotal, 224. 
High-feeding, dangerous. 147. 
Hobbles, to prevent kicking. 1.58. 
Holland, ini: crr^iwut-; froni. 103. 
Horse-breeding ; t.ni-tics. 15S, 163. 165. 
Horse-of-all-werk, 137. 
Horses, adaptation to locality, 19. 

for f;^.rmers, 141. 

modified by climate, 19. ! 

that will sell, 141. I 

the l)ri'e(!s of,6s. j 

Humidity, effiect of. 19. 
Hvgieni' of the eye, 204. 

Imagination, effect of on color. 6'^ i 

Importation not a guaranty of excel- 
lence. 142. 
Impregnation, causes (,>f failure cf 173 

inlluence of first. 51. " " ' 

may be ignored, 60. 
In -breeding, 35. 

as illustrated in tlie Ptolmeys. 36. 

contradictious of. exi)lained, 41. 

Darwin on, 40. 

Gallon (tn, 37. 

Herbert Spencer on. 39, 42. 

effect of on hardiness, 44. 

liovv far it may be practiced. 46. 

tendency of, 36, 44. 

when not dangerous. 42. 
Increase in speed of trotters. 85. 
Increasing How of milk, 184. 
Indi.m ponies, 130. 

Individual quality, transmission of. 3'. 
Inheritance in the iuunan family, in 
Inherited blindness, 205. 
Infirmities tran.smittcd, 142. 
Inflammation of the penis. 222, 

testicles. 223. 



Inflamed udder, 2(R). 

Influence of first impregnation 51 

of the dam, 172. 
Iniquities of fathers visited uikju tlie 

children, 9. 
Injuries, external, to the stallion. 221. 

Jacks fighting with stallions, 171. 

Kicking by mares, how to prevent, 153. 

Laceration'of the perinaeum. 242 

of the rectum, 239. 
Lanarkshire, horses of, 110. 
Lassoing stallions, 170. 
Law, Prof. James, on barrenness. 1 73 
diarrhoea or scours, 212. 
influence of first impregnation 52 
: the eye. 204. 
1 strangles or distemper, 218. 

umbilical hernia, 211. 
I Legs and feet, 135. 
Leucorrhcea or whites, 235. 
Lighting the stable, 207. 
Limits of service 01 stallion, 156. 
Live foals, percentage of to mares 
I served, 162. 

Live-Htock Journal (London) on Cleve- 
land Bays, 98. 
I Low, Prof. David, on climatic influ- 
ences, 19. 
draft horses, 103. 
thoroughbreds, 71. 

Mahomet, influence of, on horse-breed- 
ing in Arabia, 76. 
Male should be larger than female, 49 
Mambrinos, 81. 

Management of the stallion, 142. 
Mares, abortion in, 194. 

aversion to by stallion, 156. 

attention to at foaling, 182. 196. 

diseases of. See brood mares. 

feeding while suckling, 184, 194. 199 

how to prevent from kicking, 153. 

influence uf on jirogeny. 171. 

means to insure inipregnatloii. UM. 

number to be servca. 156. 

suckling, food f(<r, 184, 194. 214. 

w lien in hent. 154, 191. 

when should be bred. 154. 

when suckling. 213. 

when : heuhl be tried. 1,54. 

working when in foal, l'i9, ls3. 19J 
Markings fn, in irui'gination, 62. 
J/(ii/, Lmn' A:r/,)(.;:son Ch'velands, t)8. 
Mastnrb;'.tion. 2o0. 
Milk I'lieetini: the foal. 214. 

ellect of first, 201. 

for colts 185. 

effect (,f general health on, 213. 

healed, effect of, 201, 213. 

mcreasing the flow of, 184. 
Moon-blindness, 205. 
Morgans, 82. 
Mustangs, 130. 



248 



Nearsightedness, 205. 

Ninth day after foaling, best for breed- 
ing" again, 154. 

Norman Horse Association. 127. 

Norman Horse Register, 127. 

Non-emission of semen, or "proud- 
ness," 227. 

Norman-Percheron controversy, 122. 

i\'url/i Briti-h. Agriculturist on high 
feeding. 148. 

Nostrums injurious, 146. 

Number of mares to be served, 1.50. 

Nymplionumia, 234. 

CEdema of pregnancy, 238. 

CEstrum or heat, 154, 191. 

Oil-meal for colts, 185. 

Old work or road mares not desirable, 

180, 190. 
Ophthalmia, 205. 

Opening mouth of the womb, 175. 
Oriental sires, influence of on thor- 
oughbreds. 75. 
Origin il'unifonnity of type, 11. 
Origin of Cleveland Bays, 97. 

Oydcsdtilcs. 110. 

KuLTlish Shire or Cart horses. 102. 

Orlulf trotters. 91. 

Pcrchcrons, IK!. 

Tli..r()Uirlil)reds, 68. 
Orlott" trotters, 91. 

and Auierican trotters compared. 95. 

trottinir rules. 93. 
Ovaries, diseased, 176. 
Overfeeding and lack of exercise, 151. 

dangers from, 147. 

Paaren, Dr. N. H., on abortion, 240. 

barrenness in mares, 233. 

cancer of the penis and sheath. 223. 

colt-founder, 237. 

crvptorehids or ridglings, 232. 

diiticult parturition, 240. 

enlargement of the i)enis, 222. 

excessive venery. 227. 

external injuriestotlie stallion. 221. 

foul slicath. 229. 

lieat during pregnancy, 239. 

inflanunation of the testicles, 223. 

laceration of the perinaeum, 242. 

laceration of the rectum, 239. 

leucorrhoea or whites, 235. 

masturbation, 230. 

nou-eniission or "proudness," 227. 

nymplioHKuna, 234. 

u'dema of pregnancy, 238. 

l)ai'alysis of the penis, 223. 

prolapse of penis. 223. 

scrotal hernia. 224. 

sexual sluiTLcisliness, 228. 

si)ermatnrrlHea. 229. 

su]KTiin|)re!,niation, 238. 

tumors of tlie vagina-, 235. 

vesicular eruptions of penis, 229. 

waterbag. so-called, 226. 
Paralysis of the i)enis, 223. 



Paris, horse dealers of, 120. 
Parturition, dilficult, 196, 240. 

signs of, 182, 196. 
Pasture, effects of on brood mares, 203. 
Per cent of foals to mares served. 162. 
Pedigree in the human familv, 10. 

tests of, 48. 

value of, 46. 
Percherons, 116. 

early importations of, 122. 
Percheron-Norman controversy, 122. 
Percheron Stud I'.ook, Amer'u, 124, 126. 

Freiieh, 117. 121. 126. 
Perina'um. laceration of, 242. 
Periodic (-phthalmia. 205. 
Perriott, Ernest, on Perclierons, 121. 
Pilots, 83. 
Ponies, 129, 130. 
Pregnancy, heat during, 155, 239. 

signs of, 154, 192. 
Principles of breeding. 9. 
Procluctive, period in brood mares. 178. 
Progress in breeding trotters, 84. 
Prolapse of the jienis. 22:J. 
Ptolmeys, an illustration from the, 36. 
Puerperal fever, caused by over-feed- 
ing, 173. 
Pure air essential, 187. 

Qualities of a good draft horse, 137. 
Quality of mare's milk, 201. 

of get not affected by age of sire, 159. 

Records of lUiffalo trotting course, 85. 
Rectum, laceration of, 239. 
Relative size of sire and dam, 48. 
Remarkable iiroductiveness, 178. . 
Reversion to original type, 14, 29. 
Reynolds, Dr. R. S., on English draft 
horses, 105. 

views of, 190. 
Ridglings, 232. 
Roadsters and trotters, 80. 
Roughing it, eifect of on colts, 181. 
Rupture at the naval, 211. 

of the scrotum. 224. 
Russian trotters, 90. 

trotting rules, 93. 

Scours or diarrhoea, 202, 212. 

Scrotal hernia, 224. 

Season, fitting the stallion for the, 143. 

stallion after the close of, 163. 
Selection, influence of, 11. 

in forming breeds, 33. 

of breeding stock. 138, 142. 
Service of mare, managing the stallion 

at, 152. 
Sex, controlling the, 65. 
Sexual sluggishness, 228. 
Sheath, foul, 229. 
Shetland ])Ouies, 129. 

produced by climatic influences, 12. 
Shire and Clvdcsdale, blended, 112. 
Shire horses. Kndisli. 101. 
Shire Horse Stud I'.ook, 105. 
Signs of a])i)roac!iing parturition. 182,196 



INDEX. 



249 



Signs of heat or oestrum, 191. 

pregnancy, 192. 
Size of sire and dam, relative, 48. 
Skimmed milk for colts, 186. 
Sluggishness, sexual, 228. 
Soundness, importance of, 133. 
Speed of American trotters, 83. 

Orloff trotters, 95. 
Spencer, Herbert on in-breeding, 39, 42. 
Spermatorrhoea, 229. 
Sports, 23. 

Stables, how they should be lighted, 146. 
Stable management of the stallion, 146. 
Stallions, accidents and diseases of, 221. 

cancer of the penis and sheath, 223. 

cryptorchids orridglings, 232. 

excessive venery, 227. 

external injuries to, 221. 

foul sheath, 229. 

"grease heel," 150. 

inflammation of the penis, 222. 

inflammation of the testicles, 223. 

masturbation, 230. 

non-emission or "proudness," 25T 

paralysis of the penis, 223. 

scrotal hernia, 224. 

sexual sluggishness, 228. 

spermatorrhoea, 229. 

vesicular eruption of the penis, 229. 

waterbag, so-called, 226. 

bridle for. described, 131. 
Stallions, brood mares and foals, 131. 
Stallions, controlling, when in use, 151. 

aversion of to mare, how remedied, 
156. 

condition for the stud, 144. 

danger from overfeeding, 14T. 

effect of castration on. 168. 

exercise for, 145. 

fighting, 170. 

management of, 143. 

management of the, after season 
closes, 166. 

nostrums not good for, 144. 

number of mares to be served bv, 
156. 

should not be drugged. 144. 

stalls for, 146. 

sureness of, not affected by number 
of mares served, 157. 

superior to mares and geldings in 
courage, 169. 

teaching to mount, 152. 

stalls for, 146. 
Starving process condemned. 188. 
Statistics of breeding, 158, 163. 165. 
Sterility, causes of, 173. 
Strangles or distemper, 218. 
Street, Mr. F., on Cleveland Bays, 98. 
Stud Book, Cleveland Bay, 97. 

Clvdesdale, American, 116. 
Scotch, 112. 

Percheron, American, 124. 126. 
French, 117, 121, 126. 

Shire horse. American, 109. 
English, 105. 

17 



Stud Book, Thoroughbred, Amer'n. 79. 

English, 71. 
Suffolk Punch, 128. 
Sugar, effect of on the eye, 209. 
Superimpregnation, 238. 
Sure stallion, what is a, 162. 

Teaching the foal to drink, 185. 
Teazing by the stallion, 155. 
Teeth, effect of on the eye, 209. 
Temper transmitted, 143. 
Temperature, effect of, 19. 
Testicles, inflammation of the, 223. 
Test of pedigree, 48. 
Theories of sex production, G5. 
Thoroughbreds, 68. 

blood of in trotters, 87. 

hardiness of, 44. 

in America, 78. 

origin of, 68. 

peculiarities of, 77. 
Thoroughbred Stud Book, Amer'n, 79. 

English, 71. 
Time of foaling, 180. 
Top crosses most important, 47. 
Transmission of accidental qualities, 25. 

individual character, 30. 
Trotters and roadsters, 80. 
Trotting blood, foundation for, 89. 
Trotting horses as a breed, 83. 

how to breed, 86. 

progress in breeding, 84. 
Trying mares, 134. 
Tumors, vaginal and uterine, 233. 
Turner, G. T., on Cleveland Baj's, 100. 
Types that sell, 138. 

Udder, inflamed, 200. 

the. as a sign of parturition, 182. 
Umbilical licruia, 211. 
Uniformity (it type. 11. 

transiinttod,, 27. 
Unsoundness transmitted. 136. 
I'terine tumors, 235. 

Vaginal tumors, 235. 
Variations, accidental, 23. 

accidental, transmissible, 25. 

from uniformity, causes of. 11. 
Value of peditrree, 46. 
Venarj', excessive, 227. 
Vidal's views on Percherons, 120. 
Violent crosses, effect of, 38. 

Waterbag in stallion, 226. 
Weaning the foal, 186. 
Wolf teeth. 209. 
Womb, closure of the, 175. 

svnipatlietic excitement of, 177. 
Working brood mares. 179, 183, 193. 

stallions. 166. 
Worms in the intestines, 261. 

Young mares, should not be bred. 174. 
stallions, number of mares to be 
served bv. 156. 



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